


You Think I Think I Sound Like God

by scentedglitter



Series: Love Monster [1]
Category: Pitch Perfect (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Celebrity, Based On an Amy Shark Song, F/F, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-27
Updated: 2019-09-05
Packaged: 2020-05-20 12:04:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 27,620
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19376347
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scentedglitter/pseuds/scentedglitter
Summary: An eleven-year grudge between once-childhood best friends/high school girlfriends has to be confronted when they're contracted to work together. Inspired by Amy Shark's "You Think I Think I Sound Like God". 95% Fluff.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> About a year ago Amy Shark released the album Love Monster and I wrote outlines for a oneshot series based on it, then promptly forgot about it. Remembered a few weeks ago thanks to an Amy Shark concert, started writing the first (last, going by track order) and it quickly got out of hand, so here's this. Eventually will be a 13 or 14-fic series, not all this long. Enjoy.

“Now, there’s been a fun rumour floating around,” the interviewer starts, cutting off the end of Chloe Beale’s summary of the movie this interview is about. She hates when they do that. The statement is raising a giant red flag in her mind, too, but Chloe manages to maintain her fake-genuine smile, a mirror image of the woman to her side. “were you really best friends with Beca Mitchell in high school?” she finishes. Chloe knows she hasn’t managed to hide the grimace that crosses her face at the thought judging by the raised eyebrow and predatory smile now adorning the interviewer’s face.

“Ms. Beale will take no further questions, it has been made quite clear in your media licensing documents that questions on this topic are not permissible,” Chloe’s agent seems to appear out of thin air between the two seated woman, pulling Chloe up and out of her chair before the interviewer has a chance to respond.

“Fucks sake,” Chloe grumbles once they are out of earshot of anyone else, her agent sighing in response as they stalk towards the private dressing room they have been allocated for today’s barrage of interviews.

“Mitchell question,” Veronica explains when Chloe’s manager, Aubrey, starts to panic at their early return to the room. “You know, I don’t know why you can’t just say that you were but you had a falling ou-“

“No!” Aubrey hisses forcefully, not letting the idea reach its full form in the open. “We do not acknowledge Mitchell.”

“I’m sure the self-entitled bitch can do enough of her own promotion without interrupting mine,” Chloe runs a hand through her hair, rolling her eyes when everyone in the room immediately flinches as if to stop her. “God, I’m a person with real hair that’s occasionally not perfectly positioned, how on earth will I keep my adoring, objectifying, fucking insane fans if they know.”

Aubrey rolls her eyes at the sarcasm, everyone else merely looking down and going back to their jobs. It’s always Aubrey who stands up to her bullshit, but why wouldn’t she? She’s known Chloe longer than anyone. Well, almost anyone.

* * *

Beca wasn’t quite sure how she’s got here, sometimes. She knew the basic outline, of course - start college, run into a studio exec at a dodgy radio internship, drop out of college, move to LA, sign to a legit label, write an album, sing an album, tour an album, seize the rising popularity of singer/producer types and jump on that train straight to unimaginable success - but the why always felt a little fuzzy. Especially since, somewhere, she still felt like she was 18 years old desperately grabbing at the parts of her life she thought she could control while everything else spun with wild abandon.

Eighteen-year-old Beca was kind of an idiot, though. She could at least accept that a decade on she was a little smarter, or at least, a little more jaded to the world at large. One time, when asked about her musical inspirations, she had joked Daft Punk - not for anything musical, but because they got to hide themselves behind a mask and escape the shitty side of fame. The next day she was hammered in the media for being ungrateful for her fans, so that question was now firmly – at her management’s request, not hers - on the “do not ask” list distributed to anyone with the unfortunate task of interviewing her. Not that she’d say Daft Punk again, of course.

She hasn’t changed her mind. She just thinks Marshmello would be a more culturally relevant example now. Besides, she does actually like his style. There’s a collaboration in the works, according to her boss at the studio, so maybe she can slip something about it into an interview whenever that comes to fruition before her manager, Jackie, can veto it.

Beca is quite aware that she’s a pain in the ass to deal with for her team, sometimes, and she doesn’t necessarily have to act like a petulant teenager just because she feels like she’s locked inside her own 18-year-old brain. It’s just... easier. 18-year-old Beca Mitchell was in a lot of pain. At 28, she’s not entirely sure it’s ever gone away. She has to mask it somehow.

It would probably help if she could stop thinking about it, she knows that. She knew that even before the psychologist her first manager had pushed her to see had told her that fixating wasn’t helpful. Unfortunately, the pain is still everywhere. She is still everywhere.

“Chloe stormed out of an interview when she was asked about you again today,” Stacie comments, when Beca wanders into her house after a relatively unproductive day at the studio where she largely moped around and trashed old song drafts.

“How many times do I need to tell you I don’t want to hear about her?” she lies, voice weak, Stacie laughing out loud as she follows Beca through the house.

“Try saying that a little more believably and maybe I’ll stop.”

“Why the fuck are you in my house again anyway?” Beca switches the subject, praying that Stacie will let her have it this time.

“You gave me a key.”

“Yeah, I’m pissed at past Beca for that too,” Beca gives in, starting to pull off her shirt and search for another as Stacie stands unflinching in her bedroom door.

“You’re going to be really mad soon, because Jackie sent me here to tell you something so you won’t fire her on the spot for it,” Stacie’s tone turns uncharacteristically cautious, Beca turning with her pants half-removed to stare.

“Who says I won’t fire you too?”

“You can’t fire your only friend, Beca.”

The indignant huff she lets out in response as she goes back to changing out of her work clothes might have had more force if Stacie wasn’t right.

Beca doesn’t say any more, feeling Stacie watch her as she wanders into the bathroom to (unnecessarily) meticulously remove her makeup and pull the mild wave out of her hair with her fingers. She’s not delaying on purpose, she swears. She’s just… putting it off. Eventually, she can’t do any more, pushing past Stacie as she walks back out into her living room and falls down onto the couch, looking up at her friend expectantly.

“So you know how you have no say in major one-off jobs the label books you for?” Stacie starts, remaining standing opposite Beca, arms crossed defensively across her chest. It would probably make Beca feel a little guilty if she didn’t suspect that it was less her friend feeling defensive around her and more the fact that Stacie tended to naturally fall into any position that accentuated her chest.

“Oh, god, please tell me I don’t have to actually sing with a bunch of kids that think they’re top shit,” she groans in response, not able to think of any worse assignment.

“Nope, this collaborator is a fully-grown adult one year your senior,” Stacie confirms, raising an eyebrow at Beca’s exaggerated sigh of relief.

“Why so scared of telling me, then? Is it Marshmello? They mentioned that one already, I really wanna work with him, actuall-“

“It’s Chloe.” Stacie cuts her rambling off. “As in Chloe Beale, your favourite. She’s doing a movie musical, but they want to feature your vocals as a duet on some of the music alongside her lead. You’d be producing a handful of songs, too.”

Beca bursts out laughing, letting her posture relax as she shifts to lean sideways against the couch, noticing Stacie has moved to the armchair when she looks up again. “As if that’ll actually happen, she’ll refuse to sign the contract.”

“She did sign a contract, it just listed as producer of studio’s choice, they hadn’t confirmed with your people yet. She won’t know it’s you until she walks into the studio and doesn’t have any option. Also, yes, Jess and I pushed both your agents to try and get you to do something together,” Stacie elaborates, eyeing Beca carefully, although the latter remains unflinching.

“Whatever, dude, you know I don’t have a problem with her. It’s her that’s holding an insane eleven-year grudge over some high school bitchy shit that was entirely her doing anyway. Her or Aubrey will find out and they’ll find a way to get out of it. It’s not like she doesn’t have money to burn, she can pay contract break fees.”

“We’ll see,” Stacie starts, and Beca breathes a sigh of relief, thinking the conversation is going to move on. “Sorry I called myself your best friend,” she adds.

“What? You are,” Beca answers, confused, turning so she is facing Stacie again.

“You told me it’d always be her.”

The lump in her throat forms so quickly that she can’t help but make some strangled noise of surprise, her cheeks heating up as her heart rate increases and her eyes blink back a sudden onslaught of tears, a familiar ache worming its way through her veins at settling firmly in her chest.

“Ten fucking years,” she bites out, after a moment, giving up as she curls forward and lets her body start to shake with loud sobs. “Ten- fucking years. And I- I don’t even know why she did it.”

“I know,” Stacie answers, sadness evident in her own voice, much closer than Beca expected. For once, the hand Stacie places on her shoulder isn’t shrugged off.

“I just want to talk to her.”

* * *

“What the fuck!” Beca screams, slamming her laptop shut and managing to spin her chair around and step out of it at the same time, an uncharacteristic display of coordination in response to the throat clearing behind her in her home office. Her heart stops racing once she realises it is Stacie leaning against her door frame, smirking.

“I have a key, remember?”

“Yeah, but you could maybe call before making me think someone has broken into my fucking apartment?” Beca retorts back, reluctantly sitting back down into her chair and gesturing for Stacie to come into the room.

“Nice picture of Chloe you were looking at there, by the way. Sounded like her voice too…” she trails off as she sits on the armchair across from Beca’s desk, teasing.

“I need to listen to her voice before I go into a studio in a week to produce her, assuming you aren’t here to tell me her or Aubrey found out and either I’m off the job or she quit?” Beca’s tone drops a little at the end as her thoughts wander off, and she quickly clears her throat to try and hide it.

“It’s still happening, don’t worry. You’ll get to see her again, although no telling what her reaction is. I’m just here because I haven’t eaten your chilli for a while and I thought I could convince you to make it tonight…” Stacie trails off, hopefully, and Beca laughs.

“Yeah, okay.”

* * *

“I’m fine with doing the whole duet thing, I can see how it’ll work with these scenes, but do we know who I’m actually doing it with yet?” Chloe asks one of the film’s executive producers as she hangs around on set between takes. She’s one of the few people in today, so while she’s made decent acquaintance with most of the cast, there’s not really anyone around up for hanging out between takes today. And Aubrey was getting on her nerves, so she gave her the day off.

“Um, we’re still narrowing down options, actually,” she answers, messily, the majority of the production team well aware of the fact that Chloe Beale and Beca Mitchell did not get on.

“Wasn’t it Be-“ a passing PA adds, quickly cut off by one of the cameramen.

“I was helping shoot a couple of promo things the other day, they’ve definitely not decided yet, I think Julia Michaels was one of the options though…”

“Ooh, I love her! She’s such a good songwriter but I’m so glad she’s releasing her own stuff these days too,” Chloe enthuses, conversation moving on.

* * *

Beca prides herself on being on-time, but absolutely never early. She’s early for her first session with Chloe. It’s not her first session on the project – she met with some of the other sound crew the previous week and has already started working on producing some of the minor numbers within the movie from tracks handed to her of other vocalists – but it’s her first with Chloe and her first in the studio. She still doesn’t entirely get why she’s putting her vocals in a movie that she isn’t actually appearing in, but apparently, it’s something about the lead character being two people or having a long-lost cousin or maybe a ghost or… she’s not sure. It’s a big budget movie, though, so she’s pretty sure they’ll have it worked out.

She isn’t sure where to sit in the studio – obviously, at the mixing desk, but it’s a big desk – and there’s a percussion setup in the room that she guesses would normally be inside the actual recording booth that she’s been kind of hiding behind and tapping her fingers against the edge of the snare, in between wringing her hands together and peering out the door. Stacie had tried to amp her up about the day, promising her it might actually mean they talk, or acknowledge each other, or just… move forward. She’s not sure it helped, because now she’s some combination of hopeful, terrified, and heartbroken. Maybe she won’t even show. Maybe-

“Okay, the studio just around here?” Chloe’s voice is unmistakeable even a decade after she’s heard it through anything other than a speaker, Beca almost falling off her chair in response to the sound. She still can’t decide where to look, whether to hide, what to do-

Her eyes flick up when the door clicks open. Chloe’s eye movement from the door handle, up and into the room to look at Beca seeming to take at least ten seconds, if not a minute. Beca can’t breathe, she can’t make her thoughts slow down enough to be intelligible even to herself, she can’t-

Chloe freezes when their eyes meet, recognition the first and only emotion visible in them before she immediately turns and leaves the room again.

Time catches up, then, Beca collapsing forward off the chair out of control and sinking to her knees on the floor as she gasps for the breath that seemed to escape her for however long it was, and now she’s inhaling too quickly, and she’s hyperventilating, and this is a professional environment and she’s going to be so embarrassed because she’s still just an 18-year old kid who-

The next time Beca is aware of her own surroundings, she’s sitting on a couch in an unfamiliar room with Stacie and Jessica either side of her, holding her tightly.

“What is- what – where-“ she isn’t sure what question to ask first, and she’s not yet present enough to ask all of them. “Jessica?”

“Hey, Beca. I’m… sorry it’s been so long,” she says, softly, Beca just nodding. It’s been years since she saw Jess.

“Did I black out?” she asks, after another minute, trying to piece together the last… she’s not even sure how long it’s been. It feels like an hour since she was at that desk.

“No, you’ve been conscious the whole time, you just went into psychosis according to the doctor, but it’s only been 3 minutes and she said anything short is kind of fine,” Stacie responds, sounding stressed herself, and Beca takes a careful deep breath as she tries to take it all in.

“What happened? I remember falling onto the floor after Chl- after she walked out, and I know I was hyperventilating, and then suddenly I was here…”

“I was behind her. She pushed me out of the way when she walked out and I went in and got you, Stacie was in the building already in case something happened like this, and there was a doctor on site because of one of the other shoots happening at the moment who came within a minute and got us to help walk you into here. This is the meeting room near the entrance, the studio is two doors down, do you remember that?” Jess explains, carefully, and Beca simply nods in response.

“So am I getting fired, or is she quitting?” Beca asks, a darkness creeping into her tone that causes Stacie to grip her shoulder harder.

“She didn’t leave the studio entirely, so… I’m not sure. If you two are okay I might… go and find her. Before Aubrey gets to her,” Jess pulls away slowly at Beca’s nod, Stacie pulling her closer in response.

* * *

“Chloe?” she hears Jessica’s voice before she enters the room, Chloe sitting silently on the couch across from her agent, refusing to meet her eyes.

“Mm?” Chloe’s response is sharp, and Jessica sighs loudly in response.

“Have you called Aubrey?” Jessica asks.

“No. Aubrey’s distaste for Be-“

“Don’t say her name,” Chloe cuts Veronica off, her voice close to a hiss.

“-Aubrey’s distaste for her is more personal than professional so I doubt it would be productive for her to be here,” Veronica finishes, Jess nodding.

“How the fuck did this happen?” Chloe finally looks up, to see Jess and Veronica staring her down with more strength in their gazes than she remembers seeing for… well, ever.

“Beca Mitchell is the best producer in the business. The studio wanted to hire her. We all know your voices sound fantastic together. So you’re going to sing together, and she’s going to produce you,” Jessica explains, her tone pointed as if she expects resistance. Chloe bites out a laugh.

“As if she’d actually sing with me, she doesn’t think my voice is worth shit, remember? Hell, I wouldn’t put it past her to be doing this to intentionally wreck my career by throwing terrible production on me.”

“What? She doesn’t think that…” Jessica trails off, confused, and Veronica sighs.

“Chloe and Aubrey have been adamant for years that Mitchell tried to convince Chloe not to pursue acting or singing because she wasn’t talented enough for either of them,” she explains, Chloe nodding along.

“Yup. Why do you think we fell out, anyway? I was fucking in love with her, but she couldn’t even have the basic decency to support me because she couldn’t stand the idea of not being the best,” Chloe’s tone is higher-pitched than usual, and she feels a burning pressure behind her eyes, but she hopes the others don’t notice.

“You fell out because she thought you were in love with her then she caught you making out with Tom in her car!” Jessica spits back, her voice raised, “and I want so badly to support both of you, Chloe, but you’re being fucking ridiculous, and you took Beca and gave her hope and then crushed it to pieces weeks later and cost her the only constant in her life in the process. Grow up and just fucking talk to her. She’s been trying to fix things for years. It’s on you.”

Chloe sits, silenced, for two minutes trying to process Jessica’s attack, but it doesn’t make any sense. That’s not how anything happened. Sure, she ran off to Tom to get back at Beca, and that was stupid, but Beca tried to ruin her dreams, and that’s not something Chloe will let go.

“I don’t see her trying to do a thing except continue to fuck with my career,” she replies, finally, eyes narrowed. “I know what she did. I know what she said.”

“Would you at least listen to her, if she told you she never did that? You know she can’t lie for shit,” Jessica pleads, exasperated.

Chloe lets out a long sigh, bringing her hand to the centre of her forehead and squeezing her eyes closed. She’s an adult, a professional, and she has a job to do. She doesn’t have time for this high school bullshit, but she also doesn’t have time for the hit her career would take if she bailed on this movie or agitated for a producer change. She knows Aubrey would tell her to bail on the movie, but Aubrey’s hatred of all things to do with her once-best-friend predated their falling out and maybe wasn’t the most sensible. She could at least admit that. And Jessica had stuck by her for ten years, although apparently talking to Beca in the background without her knowing…

“Fine. She can talk. If she wants to. I wouldn’t be surprised if she up and left because I wasted her studio time, though,” Chloe relents, looking back up at the others, Veronica quickly shaking her head and gesturing to Jess to speak.

“She’s still here. She had an intense panic attack and went into full psychosis when you walked out. We had to get a doctor because she wasn’t responding to me or Stacie,” Jess explains, before quickly turning on her heel and walking out.

Chloe feels Veronica’s judging glance but isn’t particularly ready to look back up from where her eyes have returned to the floor to meet it. Still, the silence is stifling. Silence is one thing she has never dealt well with. Well, unless it was with… her.

“I’ve never had any reason to think she cared,” Chloe points out, reluctantly looking up to see Veronica’s responding head shake.

“I’m more interested in the part where you admitted you were in love with her.”

“I… yeah,” Chloe sighs, recognising the feeling that settles in her head and her heart simultaneously. “Am. Not were.”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Apologies for the delay - went on a terrible date, didn't want to look at any fic for a while. But I'm back!
> 
> Also - some strong opinions in the comments on that first chapter! I guess we'll see how these two no-longer-kids go... but it's certainly far from over so who knows what will happen! (I do. I've already written all 8 chapters).

Beca is kind of surprised by her own willingness to talk to – confront – Chloe, but she’s still not entirely sure what her mind is doing so she figures it’s more attributable to complete dissociation than confidence. Either way, when Jessica returns and cautiously explains what Chloe accused her of, and that she’s willing to talk, Beca shrugs.

“Um, yeah, I never said anything remotely like that… I guess I’ll talk to her,” she speaks up, stretching her fingers out in front of her to examine whether she’s finally stopped shaking. They seem stable. “Who’s with her?”

“Just her agent, Veronica. Aubrey is her manager, as you know but… Veronica seems to have stopped her from calling Aubrey in,” Jessica explains, her tone regaining confidence as she leans against the wall opposite the couch where Stacie and Beca are still sitting.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Beca? You kind of scared me,” Stacie admits, reaching out to grip her arm again, and Beca nods slowly.

“It was a shock that I don’t think I was properly prepared for. A lot of feelings I’ve been burying for years came up all at once and it was more than I could process… But they’re kind of all here, now, and talking to her isn’t going to make any more come up. If anything, I think it’ll be an… outlet of sorts, for them? I’m not gonna outright yell at her, I hope, but like…” she trails off with a shrug.

“I wouldn’t blame you for yelling. This is the first I heard of the whole bullshit about you not supporting her too,” Jessica admits, and Beca shrugs.

“Okay, should I go… now?”

When Beca knocks on the meeting room door further down the hall, Jess and Stacie hovering in the hallway beside her, she doesn’t expect it to be immediately opened by a woman she’s only ever seen before shadowing Chloe on red carpets.

“Hi, you must be Beca! I’m Veronica,” she extends her hand, and Beca is quietly pleased to notice her own hand isn’t shaking or clammy when she accepts the handshake with a nod and a smile that she knows doesn’t quite hide her nerves. “Are you staying out here?” she turns her attention to Jess and Stacie – Beca quietly noting that evidently, she has met Stacie before, as she doesn’t introduce herself – as she steps out of the door, Beca moving to the side to give her room.

“Yes, we are,” Jess answers.

“Okay, I will too,” Veronica says as she moves across the hallway to join them, away from the door. Beca takes it as a cue to finally step inside, letting the door fall closed behind her as she glances around the room. She takes another two steps forward, so she is standing roughly in line with the coffee table placed between the two opposing couches, and lets her gaze settle on Chloe, who is yet to acknowledge her presence. She counts to ten in her head, watching as Chloe fiddles with the phone in her hands, still not acknowledging Beca’s presence.

“Jess telling me just then that you claim I didn’t support you and told you not to pursue acting or singing is the first I’ve heard of anything like-“

“Bull-“ Chloe starts to cut her off.

“Let me speak,” Beca snaps, sharper than she expects her tone to come out, and Chloe jumps slightly as if surprised by the force. She doesn’t move to speak again, so Beca continues, “it’s the first I’ve heard of anything like that. I always supported you wholeheartedly and I wanted you to follow your dreams because I knew you were damn good at all of this kind of thing and I still think you are. I have absolutely no idea why you think otherwise. I’ve spent the last eleven years having absolutely no idea why, in the space of one day, you went from hinting that there might finally be something more than friendship happening between us to stealing my car keys so you could be all over Tom in the back of my car. I’d been in love with you for as long as I could remember, and two weeks earlier you almost told me you felt the same, and then… that. You fucking ruined me, Chloe, and you did it on purpose. I haven’t been able to get close to anyone since, my management team is a revolving door because I freak out and fire anyone that gets to know me too well, and Stacie convinced me to give her a key to my house so I can’t shut her out. I don’t know how to trust anyone any more, and this is probably the most I’ve opened up since when we admitted we both wanted something more after that show eleven years ago, and I’m only doing it because I’ve had some kind of complete breakdown seeing you again. Because I just never knew… why. If I knew why, I probably could’ve moved on. But I never fucking did.”

Beca stops her monologue abruptly, feeling herself start to shiver again with anxiety, eyes still fixed on Chloe, who for her own part seems to be working through a conflict herself. She still hasn’t looked up.

“I still have the note you left in my locker,” Chloe’s reply is short, her voice strained.

“What note?” Beca asks, confused, her gaze not leaving Chloe.

“You know what I mean. The day of the party, when I… took your keys. After lunch I went to get books, and you’d put a note in my locker,” Chloe finally looks up at Beca as she finishes, and Beca tries not to react, although she knows she still looks wholeheartedly confused. “Tell me a lie,” Chloe continues, still watching her.

“What?”

“Jess told me you still suck at lying, but I want proof. Tell me a complete lie.”

“Um…” Beca trails off, glancing up at the ceiling.

“And look at me when you say it.”

“Yeah, I’m not finding that very easy,” Beca mumbles, reluctantly looking back down to meet Chloe’s probing gaze. “Um, I don’t hate at all when my label makes me work with kids from Youtube that think they’re god’s gift to music?” her statement rises as if it’s almost a question, and Chloe just shakes her head in response.

“Did you put a note in my locker that said that you thought, as my best friend, that I shouldn’t pursue singing or acting after high school and should go to college for vet science instead because I didn’t have the level of skill necessary to be professional, like you did, and as my friend you’d prefer I ended up somewhere I wouldn’t inevitably fail? Signed with your name?” Chloe asks, Beca’s face falling in shock at the words spoken to her and the emotion behind the statement.

“No, I would never,” she answers, looking straight at her. It’s clear in Chloe’s eyes that she believes her, and the sigh Chloe gives in response as she covers her face with her hands gives Beca time to finally move to sit on the couch opposite.

“Who the fuck did, then?” the question is mumbled through the fingers still covering her face.

“I… don’t want to accuse the first person that came to my mind,” Beca answers, carefully, watching as Chloe nods.

“Aubrey was my first thought too,” she reluctantly admits, uncovering her face and looking back across at Beca. She tries not to visibly react to their eyes meeting again, but she’s not convinced she’s getting any better at it.

“It doesn’t really… make sense. For her to have done it, I mean,” Beca starts, finding and fiddling with a loose thread at the knee of her jeans as she continues, “I know she hated me and thought you deserved better in a best friend for a really long time, but by then she seemed to have calmed-“ she cuts herself off when Chloe shakes her head.

“She never really let up, I just convinced her to be nicer to you in person,” she explains.

“Was it handwritten?” Beca asks, shifting topic slightly.

“No, typed, and-“ Chloe seems to come to a realisation, again burying her head in her hands. “Fuck. Your computer was broken that week. That’s why you even went to that party. Fuck.”

“Yeah,” Beca confirms, feeling a lump lodge itself in her throat as she hears Chloe start to cry into her hands. She’s not surprised being upset by Chloe crying is apparently an instinctual reaction for her.

“I have… fucked up. So badly,” Chloe mumbles, through her tears, and Beca isn’t quite sure how to respond, because it isn’t untrue. “I know it probably doesn’t mean much- And I can’t fix the last eleven years. But I’m so sorry, Beca. I’m so fucking sorry. I’ve known for years that I shouldn’t have done what I did, even if you had given me that note. But knowing you didn’t and… I wasn’t careful enough to doubt it was you. I was just… so stupid. And I take full responsibility for fucking up everything. I’m so sorry.”

“I…” Beca starts, trailing off, still not sure what to say.

“I don’t expect you to forgive me in the slightest,” Chloe looks back up at her, her tone certain, but Beca can’t help but focus on the smudged eyeliner and tear tracks down her cheeks. It makes her own eyes start watering immediately, pushing through the shock she has been in for the last… however long it’s now been since Chloe walked into that recording studio.

“We would’ve been married by now,” Beca says, her brain finally conjuring up something to say, although she’s not entirely sure why she had to vocalise that thought.

“Yeah, we would,” Chloe responds almost wistfully, and the rush of hope Beca’s heart manifests in response is quickly overtaken by the doubts and mistrust that have taken up residence in her brain over the last decade. She feels like she’s going to be sick.

“I can’t… forgive you immediately, yeah. It’s… a lot,” Beca starts, trying to redirect her thoughts. “But I am… thank you. For believing me. For telling me what happened. For apologising and accepting responsibility. It helps.”

“I’m glad. And I understand. Where do we uh… go from here? With this movie, I mean?” Chloe asks.

“I’m not- well, neither of us are okay enough to work today,” she begins, carefully, “but we have another session booked tomorrow, and we’ve both signed contracts. So… I guess we start tomorrow?”

“That works for me.”

* * *

It takes the rest of the day for Beca and Chloe to explain to Stacie and Jess, and Aubrey and Veronica, respectively, their conversation. The executive producers give them the day, booking in an extra session the next week to make up the time. Beca, for her part, remains in some state of shock and numbness for most of the day, lying back on her bed – Stacie remaining sitting up against the headboard the whole time, while Jess runs back to her own job for the afternoon – as she mulls over everything in her head. She still feels like shit. Her heart is still broken, and she still doesn’t feel like trusting anyone, but… there’s something else fighting back against that, now. She voices that to Stacie, who nods in understanding, but can’t offer anything else.

Chloe’s day is louder. She screams at Aubrey over the possibility that the note was her, but Aubrey vehemently denies any involvement. She screams at Aubrey for so readily accepting that Beca did something like that instead of being rational like usual and questioning it, and Aubrey cautiously accepts responsibility for that part. She screams at herself, too, not able to deal with the intensity of the guilt she is feeling in any other way. She no longer feels like she lost the friendship of someone because they demonstrated their own lack of care for her. She actively ruined the friendship – and the likely lifelong partnership – she had with someone who did nothing but care for her. Who was as in love with her as she was with them.

* * *

Beca is early again the next day, sitting in the studio and fiddling around with the setup to get herself emotionally prepared for the day for twenty minutes before Chloe is scheduled to arrive. The latter is five minutes early, too, but she stands in the lobby with Jess until the time they are meant to start. Aubrey has disappeared on her since the screaming yesterday, and Veronica is off with another junior client she’s temporarily taken on to help out someone else at the agency she works for. Jess volunteered to be with her at the start of the day before Chloe asks, and she’s glad, because she’s never once been nervous before going into a recording studio, but today…

They smile awkwardly at each other when Chloe enters the studio, and Beca pushes straight into their work, sketching out a plan for what they need to record and do in their time together. For now, it’s just Chloe singing and Beca working the mixing board, an arrangement that neither is unhappy with. Beca flinches when she first hears Chloe’s voice come through her headphones, and Chloe notices, but past that their morning runs smoothly as they run through, and get likely-final versions of, the first song they need to work on.

“Um, thirty minutes for lunch? Or an hour? I don’t mind,” Beca speaks through the microphone as it approaches 1pm, realising she needs to give Chloe a break. Chloe nods, taking off her own headphones and stepping out of the booth, wandering over to grab her phone from where she’d sat it on a chair behind Beca. For her own part, Beca reaches down and pulls a hastily-packed lunch from her stuff under the desk, alongside her water bottle and her own phone.

“You grabbing lunch too?” Chloe asks, hesitating at the door, and Beca looks up.

“Um, probably just staying here,” she answers.

“They let you eat at the desk?” Chloe pushes, her tone almost teasing.

“Nope.”

Chloe laughs at her response, and Beca has to bite her cheek to stop herself from smiling in response. She knows it’s obvious, but after another moment, Chloe turns the handle and steps out, likely heading to craft services across the lot. The next day, Chloe invites Beca to join her.

“I mean you don’t have to or anything, I understand if you don’t want to, I just…” Chloe trails off, leaving unspoken the thoughts that she has a feeling Beca understands anyway. Miss you. Want to spend time with you. Want to fix everything, somehow, even though it seems unfixable. Want to go back to like it was eleven years ago.

“Okay,” Beca accepts, surprising both of them, stuffing her hands in her pockets as she stands up and walks beside Chloe across the lot.

They have five full recording days, plus a half-day at the end to make up for their missed initial session. Their first day is so focused and devoid of distractions that it almost seems as if they won’t need the extra half day, but as with the lunch offer, each day gets a little warmer. They both arrive early on the third day, making small talk that is almost not awkward as Beca resets the mixing board, grumbling about someone going in and messing with all her settings overnight.

“You haven’t had to change much around,” Chloe comments when she takes a water break an hour or so in.

“I learned to do this working with your voice. It’s kind of second nature,” Beca admits, and Chloe nods.

“You’re crazy talented now, though. You always were, but I pay attention to all the projects you’re involved in, and there’s some really impressive stuff in there.”

Beca blushes and mumbles half a thank you in response, before shooing Chloe back into the booth to keep working. At lunch, Chloe pulls out her own packed lunch and takes a seat in another chair that she pulls up beside Beca, launching into a conversation about a massive blooper that one of her co-stars had caused in a scene shot earlier in the week. Their conversation remains entirely superficial, and Beca’s comfortable with that. It’s still… nice. They talk for too long, eating into their time, guaranteeing that they will need the sixth day.

It’s a Friday, and their fourth session isn’t scheduled until the following Tuesday. Beca is unsurprised to see Stacie sitting in her living room when she gets home, a smirk on her face as she leans back and puts her feet up on the coffee table.

“Feet off my damn table, Stacie,” Beca growls, throwing her bag in the corner and falling back onto the couch beside her, “and spit it out already, I know why you’re here.”

“Two things, actually. How’s spending time with Chloe going, and d’you wanna go out tonight?”

“It’s… nice, actually. It’s still kind of awkward, and it’s just the kind of conversation I’d have with someone I don’t know. Nothing deep. But it’s… I missed her, and I still do, in a way. But it’s something,” she answers, forcing herself not to dodge the question, “and yeah, sure, are we talking classy going out or getting smashed at a club?”

“Let’s keep it classy, although I’m still getting drunk. There’s a new cocktail bar near my place I’ve been wanting to try,” Stacie elaborates, and Beca nods, happy to go along with the plan.

The bar gets their tick of approval quickly – it’s energetic, yet somehow, they don’t have to yell to hear each other, and they’ve got all the classics plus the weird fruity shit that Beca pretends she’s too cool for but secretly loves. She hasn’t truly let go for a while, so she does, drinking way past her limit and openly admitting to Stacie that her limit is super low because she is tiny. It’s exactly what she needs, until a handful of paparazzi find them as they leave – but she’s too drunk to really care, so she just throws her middle finger up at them and laughs as Stacie tugs her into a cab.


	3. Chapter 3

The first time Aubrey contacts Chloe after Chloe yells at her, it’s on Saturday afternoon to send two pictures of Beca and Stacie, clearly drunk, supposedly on Friday night.

“Did you know Stacie and Beca were together?” the accompanying message reads, and Chloe rolls her eyes, trying to supress the uncomfortable feeling that rises in her stomach.

“Nope, and I’m pretty sure they aren’t,” Chloe types out her reply, quickly adding, “and are you finished ignoring me? You never got back to me about schedules for the latter half of this year and I kind of need those.”

Aubrey relents, agreeing to come over the following day for work, and Chloe promises herself she won’t say a thing about Beca in front of her.

On Tuesday, Beca greets her with a genuine smile and a wave as she steps into the booth. They have a final session with just the two of them this morning, before someone else comes in to run the board when they start the duet after lunch.

“What’s up with you and Stacie?” Chloe asks, before she can stop herself, only a few sentences into their conversation before they get to work.

“Hm?” Beca pushes, raising an eyebrow at the question, and Chloe knows she can’t back out of it now.

“Um, Aubrey saw some paparazzi stuff from you guys going out the other night and made a comment about you guys being together. It… surprised me,” she tries to lie. Beca laughs.

“Yeah, definitely no. We’re friends. She did get me drunk on Friday, though. We tried out this new cocktail bar near her place downtown, it’s really good actually,” Beca shifts the conversation on, and part of Chloe wants to hug her as thanks, although that would probably defeat the purpose of moving it on.

“That sounds fun. I haven’t gone out and got properly drunk for so long, kinda miss it,” Chloe responds, laughing off her own comment as she moves back into the booth.

The next test comes when they are suddenly in the booth together. Chloe had needed to rush out of the room claiming a need to take a call from Veronica as soon as Beca started running through vocal warmups, feeling tears unnecessarily spring to her eyes in response. She took three minutes to compose herself before returning, taking place in the booth beside Beca.

She starts the song, the first verse being her only solo in the song, and it’s fine. She manages to concentrate on the lyrics in front of her, not Beca standing silently beside her. Beca comes in with the start of the chorus, and Chloe is so taken aback by hearing her voice that she misses her own lines, causing the producer sitting at the desk to call a cut.

“Sorry,” she mutters into the mic, glancing up to see Beca refusing to meet her eyes.

They start the chorus again, both making it through without any mistakes that Chloe notices, as she attempts to restrain the wide smile threatening to spread across her face because they still sound _so good_ together. The producer cuts them, saying something over the mic about going the first verse to chorus transition again.

“You sound really good together, though, you won’t have to do much work on this one Beca,” he says, and when Chloe looks across at the woman beside her, she sees a smirk in her eyes that she is evidently preventing from reaching her mouth.

“Yeah, we do.”

* * *

They finish early on their final day, but Chloe’s not needed elsewhere on set until the following evening and Beca is free to do the rest of her work pretty much whenever she wants, so neither rushes to leave the studio, falling back into easy conversation as Chloe again pulls up a chair beside Beca’s at the desk.

“You working on much else at the moment?” she asks, during a pause in their conversation.

“Not heaps. Couple of single-song collabs in the works, but other than this movie being pushed on me a couple months ago, I’m giving myself a pretty empty year,” Beca replies with a shrug.

“You’ve certainly seemed busy the last few years, if what’s been released with your credits is any indication. Any interesting collabs, or can’t you answer that?” Chloe prompts, again.

“Yeah, I’ve got one with-“ Beca starts, pausing, “Actually, I don’t think I’m meant to answer that. Almost did though. Hm, usually I’m good at keeping shit quiet. You pay a lot of attention to my credits?” she tacks the last part on mostly to redirect attention from herself as she realises exactly why she almost spilled details on that Marshmello song, regretting it almost instantly. So much for superficial conversation and a complete lack of trust.

“Yeah. I put a lot of effort into being angry at you. It wasn’t always honest. You’ve absolutely deserved every success you’ve had, and I’ve watched from a distance because, even though I probably don’t have a right to be, I’m really proud of you,” Chloe admits, and Beca nods.

“Thanks. I’ve… kind of felt the same about everything you’ve done,” she reluctantly says in reply, more nerves to her tone than Chloe showed, as she tries to fight back the urge to run away from the honesty in both their statements.

“I’m sorry if I’m pushing you,” Chloe starts, with a sigh, looking up at the ceiling and collecting her thoughts before looking back to meet Beca’s eyes, “I’ve missed you a lot, and it’s so easy spending time with you for me to fall back into the kind of closeness we had back then, but I know that it’s not easy for you, and you might not want to, or might not ever be able to. And that’s totally fine. Just… tell me to fuck off and I will, I’ve screwed up enough for you without making anything worse.”

“It is hard for me, yes, because…” Beca starts, trailing off, “I’m going to wreck myself for the day by being honest here, but I want to, so. Give me a minute.”

Chloe does just that, shifting in her chair and reluctantly letting her eyes fall away from Beca’s face to watch her spin her phone around between her hands.

“I don’t think I can fall back into anything at all with you, because for me everything was totally destroyed, and it’s not there to fall back to,” she starts again, holding up a hand when Chloe goes to apologise. “For the last decade, I’ve built up a filter in my mind that absolutely rejects anything resembling closeness and vulnerability, and we both know why. That’s not the point. I’ve missed you too, and while that filter keeps making it hard for me to be any sort of open with you, there’s also a huge part of me that wants to work towards building that with you again, and it’s not a case of never being able to. It’s just going to take time, because I need to learn to trust you again.”

“Does that mean…” Chloe starts, unashamedly wiping a tear from her eye, Beca feeling her heart rush with fondness in response. “Friends?”

“Friends,” Beca nods. She knows Chloe Beale, so she’s not surprised by the seemingly uncontrollable hug she’s pulled into in response.

* * *

Jess invites Stacie and Beca to a dinner party at her place with a handful of the other high school friends they’ve maintained contact with – Aubrey, Ashley, Cynthia-Rose – and some of her other friends a week later, her text to Stacie inviting both of them finishing with the very obvious “(Chloe will be there).”

Beca has a strained conversation with Aubrey when she first arrives, where Aubrey formally apologises for her role in the whole thing, but maintains the note wasn’t her. Beca nods in acceptance, not sure she really wants to talk about it anyway, before Chloe arrives and pulls them apart. She rarely finds herself out of conversation with her for the rest of the night, although they are often joined by others.

“Hey, Becs,” Chloe pulls her aside, late in the evening as a few people start to leave. She seems to blush at her own comment, beginning to apologise for the nickname, but Beca brushes it off as she wanders off to the side of the room with her. “Can I have your number, in case you want to hang out sometime?”

“Yeah,” Beca answers, immediately taking the phone Chloe offers to her and typing in her number. Chloe texts her a string of nonsensical animal emoji to share her own number, and she laughs.

“So, you and Chloe, hey?” Stacie prompts as they leave the party some hour later, out of earshot of anyone else. The eyebrow waggle she accompanies her comment with makes the meaning clear.

“No, Stacie. Just friends. I don’t think her and I in that way is ever going to be possible again.”

* * *

Chloe goes straight into shooting another movie after the one Beca was involved with, but the shoot is still in LA, and they start catching up when they have time. First, they always have someone else as a buffer – usually Jess or Stacie – but by three months later, they’ve moved on to hanging out by themselves, usually at a workplace or Chloe’s house, to avoid the paparazzi problem. Beca’s song with Marshmello released to huge success, so she was having to fight them off almost every time she left her house.

“Do you, um, want to come to my place Friday?” Beca asks, when they grab coffee on Chloe’s set on the Monday morning, Beca having been in the area to meet with someone from the same movie studio about a request to include one of her older songs in a production.

“That’d be great, text me the address?” Chloe replies, and Beca does just that. She pretends that the call she makes to the professional cleaning company to do her place ASAP on Thursday morning is unrelated, but it definitely isn’t. As soon as they leave, she starts freaking out that it’ll be obvious that she was worried about Chloe coming over for the first time and starts pulling out things that it would make sense to leave around, trying to find the balance between clean and lived-in.

“You know, Aubrey asked me an interesting question the other day,” Chloe starts, a half-hour after she’s arrived, as they sit at opposite ends of Beca’s couch turned to face each other, “Promo for that movie we did starts soon, and obviously there’s going to be promo about you being involved and the duet… it’s fine for you, you’ve never said much about me, but I know it’s common knowledge I stormed out of any interview that brought you up…”

“I was thinking about that, actually,” Beca admits, “my manager asked about it the other day, wants to know if anything should be added to my press rules. I just said to leave it, but…”

“I kind of want to be honest,” Chloe says, Beca tilting her head in a quiet request to elaborate. “I’ll probably have to clear it with the producers of the movie, because my reputation might take a hit for a while, but I… I don’t think I can just jump in and say actually we’re fine and nothing happened without people asking questions, and maybe I could release a statement explaining that we had an issue in high school that I now know was my fault, and we’re trying to move past it as friends. Not… any detail, although I’d happily admit exactly how I fucked up if you want me too, but…”

“I’m okay with that, if you want to do it. No detail, though,” Beca confirms, Chloe nodding.

* * *

YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT CHLOE BEALE SAID ABOUT BECA MITCHELL!

_By Entertainment Editorial_

Chloe Beale and Beca Mitchell have nothing to do with each other, right? Well, there’s been a persistent rumour since they both started getting our attention ten years ago that they had been BFFs in high school. No big deal… except Chloe gained a reputation for storming out of interviews whenever someone asked her the question – nothing like her usual charming self!

Well… Chloe’s broken her silence in a big way, and we are SHOOK.

Turns out they were BFFs in high school, middle school, elementary school, when they were toddlers… Lifelong! But then, here’s the tea…

DRAMA.

Okay, so we still don’t know exactly what happened, but apparently at the end of high school, Chloe blamed Beca for insulting her big-time and did something pretty terrible to try and get back at her – we’ve heard rumours it involved a boy – maybe she stole Beca’s boyfriend?? Anyway, back to the actual facts:

Turns out… Beca never did anything, it was someone else posing as her trying to ruin their friendship (looks like they succeeded big time!)

Chloe has apologised, explaining that they were contracted to work together on an upcoming movie and she was forced to give Beca time to explain her side (finally!), leading to the realisation that she was in the wrong the whole time. Apparently they’re now trying to rebuild a friendship – cute!! For more cuteness, I gotta quote Chloe directly:

“Beca is one of the, if not the, most talented producers in the business at the moment, and I’m so excited for everyone to hear her work on this movie – not just because my voice will sound the best it ever has because she knows me so well, either!”

Heart eyes emoji, indeed.

We contacted Beca’s reps for comment, and they said Beca supports Chloe’s statement and is happy they’re friends again.

We love friendship. And drama.

* * *

Beca is surprised when she’s called up to be part of the final week of promo for the movie. Producers don’t usually get in on these things – or featured vocalists, for that matter. She still isn’t actually _in_ the movie, although she is well aware that their song has been pre-released and is occupying a firm number one on a whole lot of charts.

(She’s a little bit annoyed, because it’s pushed her song with Marshmello out of the top 10)

“Why am I even here?” Beca asks, again, her team having migrated along with her to Chloe’s dressing room at the hotel where the final few days of interviews before the premiere on Thursday night in New York. She’s apparently gotta go to that, too. Chloe rolls her eyes, waving at everyone else to pay no attention as she drags Beca off to the side.

“There is OSCAR buzz about our song, but we’re not meant to know what, so y’know,” Chloe explains, Beca’s eyes widening before she schools her expression, muttering out a quick “fine” before they go back to meaningless conversation with the room at large, waiting on their respective interview calls. For now, Beca has been paired with one of the directors.

Two days before the premiere and the end of the interviews, they switch things around, apparently at the request of a few media outlets: now it’s Beca and Chloe together. Chloe goes to refuse, when Aubrey tells them, but Beca reaches out and rests a hand against her shoulder, silently telling her she doesn’t mind. It’s been five months, at this point. She can be friends with Chloe openly enough to be convincing.

The first question they are asked, of course, is about their ten-year grudge, as the interviewer terms it, and Chloe jumps in to provide the answer.

“I know that I really messed up, and if I’d been more open to hearing Beca’s side we could’ve fixed this earlier. But I’m really glad we’ve been able to clear everything up, and I appreciate so much that she’s given me an opportunity to try again. We work really well together,” her response manages to be positive and upbeat, and the interviewer nods.

“We’ve heard a lot about this repaired friendship from you Chloe, maybe because you’ve been doing a lot more interviews anyway, but what about you, Beca?” he turns to her, and she feels Chloe’s concerned glance at her, but she maintains her smile. She’s used to the media bullshit, always trying to trip people up, too.

“Come on, it’s no secret Chloe’s just generally more talkative than me, right? This isn’t a new thing, even when we were kids I was always the quiet one that got her to speak up instead,” she jokes, both Chloe and the interviewer laughing in response, although Chloe’s is much more genuine. “Seriously, though, I really do support everything Chloe’s said,” she continues, “Obviously, yeah, some bad stuff happened, but I absolutely believe that she’s sorry, and I’m just happy that we have been able to sort things out and move forward as friends again.”

“Chloe’s said her voice sounds best when you produce it, why’s that?” he moves on, and Beca nods.

“I learnt the basics when I was a teenager by messing around with a cheap mixing board, recording Chloe on my laptop because I didn’t like working with my own voice, so yeah, I’ve got a lot of practice working with her,” she explains, the interviewer nodding along.

“I’m guessing you have sung together before, too, then?”

“Oh, definitely. We did a duet for a school concert – our high school was super into this kind of performing arts stuff – they had this big concert for the graduating seniors, we sung together for the final performance of that like, two weeks before everything happened,” Chloe takes the question, and Beca hears the moment she realises exactly what concert she’s talking about, although it’s too far in to back out. She’s fairly confident that neither Chloe’s slight voice waver or her own rapidly reddening cheeks will be visible, though, because Chloe speaks through it, and her own face is covered in makeup.

* * *

Against Chloe’s better judgement (and Aubrey’s insistence – although Veronica just shrugs), she goes out drinking with Stacie, Beca, Cynthia-Rose and Jess the night before the OSCARs nomination luncheon, a further three months after the movie releases. She’s not usually one for risking drunken interactions with paparazzi, but they’ve got a booth in the VIP section of a nice bar in Hollywood and a plan to run out the back into a car that’ll take them all to Stacie’s place as soon as they’re finished that gives her the confidence to let loose for once.

“I remember in high school you always refused to drink much at parties because you didn’t like being drunk around people you didn’t trust,” she comments to Beca, when the others have wandered off to order more drinks not long into their evening. They’re both still not far past mildly tipsy. Chloe wouldn’t make that comment if she knew Beca was any less sober.

“I still don’t,” Beca’s response, paired with the pointed stare straight into her eyes, surprises her.

“But-“ she starts, stopping when she shakes her head.

“It’s been eight months, Chlo, and you’ve been nothing but genuine. It’s not like… it never happened or anything, and I’m still struggling with other people. But you…” she trails off, clearly trying to collect her thoughts, “I forgive you.”

Chloe has to resist the sudden urge to kiss her in response, instead shifting to throw both her arms around Beca and hugging her tightly. The fact that Beca stays leant against her side for the rest of the night gives her all the confidence she needs to turn up at her house unannounced the following evening, having come immediately from the nomination luncheon.

Beca laughs when she opens the door, stepping aside to let Chloe rush in and drag her into the living room. Chloe had changed back into regular clothes from her luncheon outfit, but her hair and makeup were still done, and Beca might’ve read about nominations online, so there’s any number of things she could be laughing at-

“Nice hair, going somewhere?” she comments, and Chloe tilts her head in response.

“More like went. You been online?”

“Nope.”

“We were nominated for an OSCAR. Best song. I got a couple other ones too. But Best Song!” she enthuses, her voice rising in volume as she speaks.

“Wait, a couple of others? What others?” Beca responds, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Uh, the movie got a Best Picture one, and I got Best Actress, but-“

“CHLOE!” Beca shouts, launching over towards her and gripping her shoulders. “You were nominated for best actress and tried to lead with goddamn best song? Best actress, dammit!”

“Okay, but best song means that we get to perform together. At the OSCARs,” she argues, watching the realisation hit Beca as she freezes, hands still on Chloe’s shoulders as she hovers half-over her.

“Oh shit, that’s terrifying,” Beca responds, seeming to realise the position she is in and shifting back to sit sideways on the couch, facing Chloe.

“Come on, it’s exciting! And hang on, haven’t you performed at like every music awards show ever in the last ten years?”

“I mean, yeah, but… the OSCARS, dude. It’s totally not my domain, and we’ve not really sung together in a long time, and definitely not live…”

“I’m sure we’ll be fine, plenty of rehearsals. And, hey, last time we sang live together worked out alright, so there’s no reason this one won’t too.”

“True. The last time was nice,” Beca admits, knowing Chloe hears the message behind what she says, suddenly getting up and walking into the kitchen.

Chloe waits, for a moment, biting her lip and watching the doorway where Beca left. She could so easily chase up that comment, ask what part of last time, try and make Beca expressly say she means the part where they made out backstage after their surprisingly emotionally charged senior year graduation concert, but…

She’s second-guessing herself, not sure if Beca really still feels the same, not sure if she even deserves another chance at that with Beca, so she stays still for another moment before getting back up and wandering into the kitchen to ask Beca for a glass of water and shift the conversation into safer territory.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> friendship development: the abridged version, because I tried to write a bunch of more detailed hangouts but they weren't particularly interesting so got cut. Also I'm very unsure on the whole news story insert thing but couldn't think of a better way to incorporate the media/fan-side reaction. Assume plenty of gifs between the lines.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> the chapter count has risen from 8 to 9 between last and this post because when I went to post this chapter the other day I ended up rewriting a huge section instead and changing chapter cutoffs to be a little more... dramatic. Oops?

Chloe was absolutely right – they have no problem performing together. Their song certainly isn’t slow, and it’s upbeat, but they keep their staging simple anyway, keeping the tumultuous point in Chloe’s character’s story it represents in focus through background imagery.

“Look, I don’t have many notes,” the producer who is in charge of approving the details of their performance comments after their first run-through on the stage, looking down at the clipboard in his hand that appears, from Chloe’s angle up on the stage, to have very little written on it. “I know filling the stage is an issue, but you could probably stand closer together, your voices are more than strong enough to fill the area from an audio point-of-view. The only other thing is… I know in the actual movie, Chloe, your character kisses someone as a representation of the entity Beca’s voice is portraying… would you be opposed to something of that sort on-stage?”

“You… want us to kiss?” Beca clarifies, trying to fight off the jealousy she can feel bubbling up hearing that Chloe kissed someone in the movie. She probably should’ve watched it, given she did promo for it, but she’s still not a movie person. And she’s kinda glad she didn’t now. She probably should be a little more worried that she even feels that.

“If you’re comfortable with it,” he responds.

“I don’t think so, no,” Chloe responds, quickly, and Beca quickly affirms the same position, feeling relief wash over her. She doesn’t think she can keep things quite as comfortable in that situation, and Chloe’s the actress, not her. She’s not good at faking things.

Beca dreads the inevitable conversation about his request when they are alone backstage after another couple of run-throughs, not able to stop herself from nervously fidgeting when Chloe brings it up.

“I’m… sorry about the kiss thing. I know I shot it down fairly quickly and usually I’m whatever about kissing people in an acting thing but…” she hesitates, “we have history, and I’m not necessarily over that history, although I don’t think I have the right to ever go there again after what I did. So… yeah.”

Beca is shocked at Chloe’s guarded explanation, assuming it would be more along the lines of a blatant “I don’t feel that way about you anymore and it would be weird,” so she’s not sure how to respond.

“Did you ask about Stacie and me because you were jealous?” is what comes out of Beca’s mouth, and she immediately facepalms at her own lack of tact, going to retract her statement until Chloe holds up a hand to signal her to stop.

“Yes,” her tone is strong, but still guarded, and it makes Beca even more nervous, “but you already know that.”

“Yeah,” Beca answers, before looking back down, scuffing her shoe against the floor as they sit in the first awkward silence they have experienced for months. She wishes she could speak up, but she’s just… not there yet.

“What’s with us and backstage confessions?” Chloe jokes, after a minute, and it lightens the mood enough for them to move on to other topics.

* * *

“Stacie. For once you’re not at my house and I want you to be,” Beca says, fake-angrily, into her phone as she falls back on her own bed that evening, Stacie laughing on the other end.

“I can be there in… well, it’s peak hour traffic, so like an hour, how bad is it?”

“Chloe kind of admitted she still likes me. Please come over,” she lets her tone turn desperate, Stacie falling into silence.

“I’ll be there ASAP.”

Stacie turns up 45 minutes later, letting herself in and quickly finding Beca still splayed out on her bed, staring up at the ceiling. She takes her traditional ‘Beca is freaking out’ spot sitting up against the headboard, crossing her legs under her and looking pointedly at Beca.

“Explain.”

Beca does just that, adding in her own veiled comments over the last couple of weeks, turning her head so she can look up at Stacie as she finishes.

“I don’t know what to do, because my heart is… so confused. I made some stupid comment when we first talked, when Jess made her let me talk to her, about how we’d be married by now if nothing had happened. And she agreed as if she… wanted that. But I brushed it off because, like, so much had changed, and I wasn’t sure if I even wanted to be friends let alone… that. But the more we hang out the more everything feels so familiar and… I’m still terrified to let her in that last bit, to admit I still want all that with her, but I think I do,” she turns back to face the ceiling, groaning at her own overshare and reaching up to grab one of her pillow to shove over her face.

“Can you still hear me around that?” Stacie asks, only continuing once she hears a pillow-mumbled yes in response, “I would’ve loved for you two to work out way back when, but I still want you to now, because there’s a reason you work so well together. She makes you happy, and you do the same for her. Aubrey even admitted to me that she lost a lot of her constant spark without you around, and it’s come back in the last nine months. If you think you’re ready for it, then go for it. But like… only if you’re sure.”

“I think I’d be fine if she walked up and told me straight out, but when she’s being hesitant and anxious, it makes me anxious, and I don’t know if I can just come straight out with it…” Beca responds, removing the pillow from her face partway through and hugging it against her chest.

“I think you’re going to have to, because she’s so worried about expecting too much from you, and she feels so guilty, that I don’t think she’s going to. Do you want it to happen enough to get past being scared to actually say it?”

“Yeah,” she answers, after a moment.

* * *

Beca suddenly gets busy within a day, through no fault of her own, the studio begging her to take on a full album production at the last minute for Julia Michaels, because the other producer was doing a terrible job and did a runner overseas so they couldn’t chase him for contract break fees. She feels too bad for the label to say no, so suddenly she’s spending every waking moment that she isn’t at OSCARs rehearsals with Chloe behind a mixing board or the full 5-screen setup in her (kind of) office, sorting through what’s already been done and trying to make it work with as little change as possible. It’s really bad, though, so she needs to call in Julia herself to redo some of the vocals, and the full band for their parts.

“I’m sorry if I made things weird-“ Chloe starts, when they have half a moment alone after one of their final rehearsals, and Beca immediately feels bad. She was worried Chloe would think she was avoiding her.

“You didn’t, Chlo, promise,” she replies, but Chloe doesn’t seem convinced.

“I’ve barely seen you since our first rehearsal.”

“I know, and I hate it, but I’ve been called on to a big project at work suddenly, I uh…” she pauses, glancing around, making sure the door to the dressing room they’re in is firmly closed, “I’m doing a full, last-minute rescue on Julia Michaels’ album, because it’s due out in three weeks and the scheduled producer fucked everything up then did a runner.”

“Oh, shit, really?” Chloe responds, “Okay, yeah, that sounds like a lot. Is it going okay?”

“Yeah, I think so. I finally got all the tracks fixed up this morning, had a final session with the band, and I’m hoping I’ll have it all finalised before the OSCARs dress on Saturday. I promise I’ll be around more after then,” Beca pushes, and Chloe nods, believing her. She quietly tucks away the realisation that Beca definitely broke a confidentiality clause by telling her why she was busy, and she’d been informed by Stacie that Beca never breaks a confidentiality clause even for her.

“All good, I love Julia Michaels, I’m sure she’ll be even better once you’re done.”

Beca just blushes and shakes her head, saved from formulating a response by Veronica and Jackie appearing to whisk them off in separate directions.

She does get the work finished before the dress rehearsal, although she isn’t out of the studio until 11:30pm on Friday, not making it back to her apartment and into bed until some time approaching 1am, not that she cares enough to look, praying that she doesn’t have sleep-deprivation bags under her eyes for the next two days of mania.

* * *

For the dress rehearsal they are, in fact, put in full hair and makeup and their outfits for the performance. Beca complains about that fact, because while she understands it when the outfit is particularly extravagant or part of the staging like that time her second manager convinced her to agree to have the train of her dress set on fire (it went fine, but it was fucking terrifying and she almost fucked up singing because of it), she doesn’t see how it’s necessary this time. There is no complicated staging. She’s just wearing a suit, and Chloe’s just wearing a dress. And okay, her suit is a lot more sparkly and low-cut than just a suit, and Chloe’s dress is a Elsa-in-frozen style sparkling gown – apparently meant to represent, once again, Chloe’s character’s tumultuous moment and Beca’s voice’s role as her guardian-angel-turned-lover-corporeal-positive-entity, something that had now been carefully explained to her – but they’re still just clothes.

“Oh my god, it’s so sparkly!” Chloe enthuses when Beca meets her backstage, dressed in her aforementioned suit for the first time.

“Says you,” Beca responds, gesturing at the diamantes – or, you know, maybe actual diamonds, this is the OSCARs – all over Chloe’s outfit, and the definite diamonds on her jewellery.

“Still!” Chloe’s enthusiasm doesn’t waver, and Beca can’t help but smile, letting some combination of Chloe and her own team guide her through the circus that is now happening backstage, and, eventually, onto the stage for their rehearsal. It’s flawless, and there’s no real point trying to pretend otherwise. She’s not scared, anymore. At least, not about the performance.

The following afternoon, she walks the red carpet with Stacie by her side, Chloe having arrived half an hour before them by herself. It’s not that Beca intentionally avoided her on the red carpet, it’s just that…

She had a feeling she knew what angle Chloe would go with her outfit, and she was right, judging by the pictures Stacie shoved in her face as they sat in the limo on their way to the venue fifteen minutes ago. She was glad her initial reaction to seeing Chloe in such a stunning, and revealing, dress had been in private, and she’s glad her in-person reaction to it will be inside the theatre where she can try and hide from a camera instead of where she knows every miniscule facial expression is being captured outside.

Stacie’s seat is halfway back in the theatre, given she is only a guest, but Beca drags her along up the front section initially anyway to where her own seat – beside Chloe – is located, in the second row off to one side.

“Beca!” Chloe exclaims, drawing the attention of everyone nearby, as they approach. Beca tries to keep her face blank, but she can’t stop herself running her gaze up Chloe’s body before she meets her eyes, not realising she’s doing it until she’s at her chest, and she really can’t stop there. The smirk Chloe is wearing when she meets her eyes makes it clear that she was caught, too, and the only solution she can think of is to run with it.

“You look so hot, Chlo,” she speaks, although forcing her tone to be lighter than it was when it ran through her own mind.

“So do you!” Chloe’s response is immediate as she pulls Beca into a careful hug, ensuring not to mess up either of their hair, makeup, or jewellery. As she pulls back, her eyes flick downwards in a move so obvious that it almost makes Beca want to cross her arms over her chest to hide the cleavage Chloe had just looked down at because, yes, she was effectively not wearing a shirt under her suit jacket and the bra that was masquerading as a shirt was doing wonders for her.

Stacie breaks the tension, physically moving herself into the space between them to enthusiastically greet Chloe. Beca doesn’t mind – it gives her a moment to breathe.

“Well, I should head up to my seat,” Stacie draws their conversation to a close a few minutes later, drawing both the others into a hug to say goodbye. “I’m guessing you’re telling her tonight?” she whispers in Beca’s ear, Beca giving half a nod when they pull back. Only half, because she’s still not… sure. And Chloe’s dress isn’t helping. She’d got to used to being friends again, she’d kind of forgotten how out-of-her-league hot Chloe was.

The seats start to fill around them and they exchange small talk with both those sitting near them and the others walking past, most of the others wishing them luck for their nomination – and Chloe, for the whole best actress thing Beca still thinks she isn’t making anywhere near enough of a deal about – before moving on to their own seats. As the show starts, finally, Beca feels her nerves start to settle.

Their performance is about halfway through the show – the fourth of the five best song nominee performances – but they are approached by a production assistant only an hour in and directed backstage to prepare. Their dressing rooms are needlessly far apart for the actual show, so as much as Beca would love to gravitate to Chloe’s once the relatively minor adjustments to her hair and makeup are done (she had protested, but they’d got ever-so-slightly glittery eyeshadow on her, and she was now prepared to be picking miniscule glitter off her eyelashes for months), she has to slowly walk to the general backstage room to wait instead.

Chloe is at her side only two minutes before they’re on, just as the winners of the last category – costume design, predictably awarded to some period drama type thing (although, to be fair, they seemed accurate) – are filtered back off the stage and through the backstage waiting room to the press room for photos.

“How are you going? Nervous?” Chloe whispers, close to her ear.

“A little,” Beca admits, although it’s not about performing, but she doesn’t need to know that. “You?”

“Same,” Chloe replies, searching in the dark beside them with her hand. Beca realises what she’s doing after a moment, reaching her own hand out to grasp Chloe’s. “Tradition,” Chloe whispers, squeezing her hand, and Beca just smiles. It was, indeed, their tradition – one that Chloe had started when they were in preschool, aged 5 and 6, and Beca was scared to go on stage before their end-of-year concert – and there wasn’t one performance in the 24 years since, save for their 11-year interruption, where they hadn’t held hands before one or both of them went onstage.

They are handed mics as the host introduces them, Beca taking hers in her left hand in order to keep her right locked with Chloe’s. Ten seconds later, they both step out, Chloe moving across to her place on the right side of the stage as Beca remains hidden behind the set until her cue. She can’t see Chloe, and she’s glad, because she knows her sole focus on the music is the reason she is able to hit that cue perfectly, stepping out into the light as she joins in the chorus and moves to her own spot, to Chloe’s left.

She’d rehearsed with the mic in her right hand, shrugging when a producer mused aloud about whether it would look better if she could have it in her left, usually one to keep quiet about the fact that she was, technically, left-handed. It was only at dress yesterday that she quietly admitted that, yeah, she could manage with her left, and the producers rolled her eyes at her and hurriedly added the tiniest amount of choreography into their routine.

They don’t explicitly acknowledge each other for most of the song – they aren’t meant to, because Chloe’s character doesn’t know the other voice is singing, yet. But now, in the final chorus, they do, half-turning at the same time to look at each other, hands reaching out to clasp just as they had backstage. In truth, Beca didn’t look at Chloe in dress, instead focussing on a section of the theatre’s side wall which was in close enough alignment to her face for it to seem from the front that she was looking at her. She gives in, though, letting their eyes meet, pleased that it no longer seems to disrupt her concentration in quite the same way as it did even just weeks ago. She still feels something, but it’s not distrust.

They get a standing ovation – she thinks – as they drop their hands and pause for a moment before the lights drop and they leave the stage. It was hard to see much of the crowd from onstage. Jackie and Veronica, both waiting for them backstage, inform them that there was, indeed, a standing ovation, and also, they killed it.

“I know I’m biased, but fuck, that was amazing, can you two just like, release an album together?” Veronica enthuses once they are far enough backstage that they can talk at a normal volume. Chloe just laughs, and Beca doesn’t offer a direct response, as she tries not to shout at herself too aggressively in her own head.

“Hey, Veronica, let’s go check on Aubrey,” Jackie pulls Veronica to the side as they approach Beca’s dressing room. Veronica nods, continuing to walk on with her, leaving Chloe and Beca by themselves. The latter opens the door, stepping into the room, knowing that Chloe will follow her in, knowing that she doesn’t need to ask.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ft. the importance of honest conversations
> 
> (I delayed this chapter to avoid posting in the middle of the [very very welcome] Bechloe week surge in fic posts, but will return to more regular updates now)

“How was that?” Chloe breaks the silence between them after a moment, sitting down on the small couch in the room as Beca stands in front of the mirror, examining her own face absentmindedly.

“It was… really fun,” Beca replies, turning to lean against the makeup bench and face Chloe.

“It really was. I love performing with you,” Chloe responds, an affectionate lilt to her tone that Beca lets her mind grab a hold of.

“Chlo,” she starts, softly, knuckles whitening as she grips the bench behind herself to stay upright. Chloe’s eyes flash with something between worry and hope, but she tries not to think about it. “I’ve been trying to work out for weeks if I’m ready to say this, and I know I’ve almost done so then dodged around it, and I know I should’ve when you did, and I’m sorry for that,” she pauses, again, glad that Chloe seems to realise she isn’t finished, “everything about tonight – our hand-holding tradition, you constantly checking if I’m okay, the fact that I was comfortable to hold your hand and meet your eyes for real on a show watched by a literal billion people – has made me realise that I am.”

She makes the decision to move to the couch, the opposite end to Chloe, because she’s not sure she can trust her knees not to give out much longer. Still, she knows she owes it to her to at least look at her when she says it, so she turns to her side, watching Chloe do the same as best she can in her dress.

“I still want more with you. I want everything with you, one day, and I don’t think that’s ever changed. All that has is my willingness to admit that, to myself as much as you. I’m…” she takes a deep breath, forcing herself to look straight at Chloe, “I’m still in love with you, and in a way, I always have been. I’m not scared to tell you that, anymore, or at least, I’m not worried because I don’t trust you, just because I… don’t know how you’ll respond. But I mean it, I really do, and if there’s any chance of us pursuing something more than friendship, I want to take that chance.”

“I’m in love with you, too,” Chloe responds, immediately, as if to reassure her, shifting to the middle of the couch. Closer to Beca. Beca, for her part, moves even closer until the knee she has up on the couch is pressed against Chloe’s thigh. “I’ll always regret what I did, more than anything because I hurt you, but also because I robbed myself of the chance to have you by my side for everything. Any time anything has happened in my life and my career, I’ve wished I could share it with you, and any time something has happened for you I’ve wished I could be there to celebrate you. I’ve never felt like I’m really myself unless you’re beside me. Part of me still feels like I don’t deserve another chance at this from you, but I want it so badly, and I’m willing to do everything I can to prove I do deserve another chance if you’re willing to give me one.”

“What’s with us and backstage confessions?” Beca asks, lightly, mirroring Chloe’s comment weeks earlier at their first rehearsal, although she reaches out and clasps both of Chloe’s hands in hers as she does. Chloe laughs, and Beca doesn’t make any attempt to prevent the adoring smile that forms in response.

“You’ve been hiding that face from me, haven’t you?” Chloe asks, Beca reluctantly nodding. “you always used to look at me like I was… everything. I’ve seen glimpses of it for months, but now is the first time…. Well. On stage, too.”

“You are everything,” Beca responds, reverently, basking in the way Chloe returns her gaze in kind. Chloe has been looking at her like this since their second recording day, when she asked her to lunch – but she’s pretended not to notice. “Can I kiss you?” she asks. When Chloe nods, she does just that.

They don’t hear the knock on the door a minute later, nor do they hear the door open and their managers step inside, stylists and makeup artists in tow. It takes a loud throat clear from Aubrey for them to break apart, sheepishly pulling back from each other, although not very far.

“I take it your talk went well?” Aubrey says, accusatorily, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“Yes, Aubrey. I’m very happy right now, please don’t be a dick,” she pushes, Aubrey simply nodding and stepping aside as their makeup artists rush in to fix their makeup.

“You’ve got ten minutes to be back in your seats before they start announcing the categories you’re up for,” Veronica explains, their original outfits shoved back at them as they both fall into the circus of backstage stylist work that they know well.

* * *

“So, if we win… Or I win…” Chloe begins, softly, when there is a short break just after they get back to their seats. “I can’t not mention you, but I don’t think admitting we’ve just been making out backstage is a good idea.”

“Yeah, same,” Beca responds, carefully, her voice low. “I wouldn’t know what to call you, anyway,” she adds, somewhere between joking and serious.

“I’d be happy with your girlfriend, if you were to say something,” she replies, Beca squeezing her hand in response as the show returns, not able to reply.

Best Song is next. They reluctantly drop each other’s hands in anticipation of the camera moving to them as the nominees are announced, both attempting to dampen their expressions to reasonable, and not euphoric, happiness. Beca has won her fair share of awards in the last ten years – and this wouldn’t be Chloe’s first OSCAR, although the one she had won was supporting actress a few years ago – but she is still wholly unprepared when the presenter announces that they have won. She stands up, prompted by Chloe’s grip returning to her hand, hugging the people behind them who were also involved with the movie. The award is, technically, in Beca and Chloe’s names – as vocalists and producer – but one of the movie’s directors walks on-stage with them, and she is quietly glad.

“Oh, wow, thank you!” Chloe steps up to the microphone, Beca hanging back and holding the gold statuette that is handed to her. It’s heavier than she expected, despite being told many times that they were indeed very heavy. “This movie has been one of my favourites I’ve done for a while, and this song too, largely because of the people I got to work with. Thank you to the directors, our producers, the whole cast and crew – you were all amazing and all part of the wonderful project we made. Of course, I have to give a massive thank you to Beca Mitchell,” Chloe pauses, quickly throwing a glance back at her. Beca shakes her head in mock-embarrassment, hiding the very real embarrassment she is experiencing. “I’m absolutely biased because you’re my best friend, but you’re also my favourite producer to work with. Thank you for everything,” she finishes, stepping aside, gesturing at Beca. Reluctantly, she steps forward.

“Movies are something I haven’t worked on much before, but working on this gave me a perfect place to start, thank you to the whole cast and crew for putting together a movie that allowed me to work the way I did with the music,” she starts, awkwardly, “and, yeah, Chloe – I’m also horribly biased, but I love working with you, and I’m so glad we finally got to do a project together.”

The director that joined them on stage says a final few words, before the music cuts in, and they rush off the side of the stage.

“How long do I have?” Chloe asks the first production assistant they can find, very aware that best actress is within a couple of categories.

“Five minutes, no press now, back out there. Your press for this award is scheduled after the best actor and actress have been presented, so if you win, stay back here after that, if you don’t, just come back after best actor. Mitchell, you can stay back here now or go back out, up to you,” he answers.

“I’ll head back out,” Beca answers, quickly, as they move off towards the entrance back out onto the theatre floor. She feels Chloe’s questioning glance, mumbling in response so no one else can hear her, “you’re either going to win best actress, or you’re not, and I’m going to be beside you either way to celebrate or bitch about whoever obviously shouldn’t have won because you should.”

They emerge into the theatre, then, preventing Chloe from replying directly. She hopes Beca knows the slight pressing of their sides together is intentional, and what it means.

She doesn’t normally get nervous at awards shows, even when she is nominated, but the nervous energy is already there from everything else that has transpired during the night, and it shifts itself into her thoughts about the award. This time, she doesn’t let go of Beca’s hand when the nominees are announced, although now that it’s just her face on camera it’s less likely to be obvious anyway. She wins, and she doesn’t really remember anything except the way Beca hugs her and whispers that she loves her in her ear before pushing her to go on-stage.

She does press with her best actress award immediately, but she’s distracted, Aubrey and Veronica almost simultaneously rolling their eyes as she glances over at them to silently ask a question she knows they’ll both understand. They can’t answer, of course, but Beca evidences her whereabouts herself when she appears, rushing up to Chloe excitedly holding two gold statues.

“I believe one of these is yours,” she says, in greeting, handing over one so Chloe now has two, maintaining a hold on her own as they turn and listen to the photographer’s requests. They’re easy, for a while, until they start to get a barrage of requests to stand closer together, continuing no matter how close they get.

“I’m going to get very close to you,” Beca murmurs below her breath, mouth barely moving, as if to warn Chloe. The next time someone asks, she throws an arm around Chloe and pulls her against her side, head resting into the space beside Chloe’s neck against her shoulder, effectively wrapping herself around Chloe’s side. “Is this close enough?” Beca yells back at the photographers, and Chloe can’t help but laugh, moving her own arms around her.

She wants to kiss her, but she refrains, even though Beca’s eyes tell her she is thinking the same thing. Maybe they should deal with the whole dating thing privately for a little while before they open it up to be tabloid fodder.

They don’t win best picture, but one of Chloe’s co-stars won best supporting actor, and there was another raft of sound design awards handed out to the non-vocal producers when they did the technical awards the other day, so Chloe and Beca are obligated to show up to at least one of the afterparties. They go to Vanity Fair, of course, the big one, and they make their way around the room with Stacie and Aubrey, often going their separate ways due to their pre-existing separate networks within the industry. However, they try to mix them around – Beca assuring Stacie that it’s because it’s good professional networking practice, Stacie rolling her eyes in response each time.

They make it to 1am before they give in, leaving Aubrey and Stacie to continue – Stacie loves a good party, and Aubrey could do with loosening up for a night – as they walk back out of the party and, still remarkably sober given the two and half hours they’ve spend having glasses of champagne thrust at them (Chloe drank three, Beca only had one. She’s not the biggest fan of champagne), climb into the back of a car, Chloe quickly directing the driver to Beca’s address.

“Why my place?” she asks.

“It’s more private. Not that I like… not that I have to stay over, or anything, if you don’t want that,” Chloe adds, hastily, but Beca stops her.

“Nothing’s gonna happen other than maybe a lot more kissing, but you are definitely staying over.”

“Perfect. I miss my cuddle buddy from senior year stress,” Chloe teases, “although I always knew that was just an excuse.”

Beca scowls at her, although the force is lessened as she leans her head against her shoulder, settling against her side in comfortable silence for the twenty-minute trip to her house.

* * *

“So, apparently we’re gal pals,” is the first thing Beca hears the following morning, reluctantly opening her eyes to see Chloe throw her phone back on the bedside table and move back under the covers. In truth, it wasn’t the first thing – she’s been awake for a good thirty minutes, but she was enjoying just lying there listening to Chloe hum under her breath and brush her thumb across her knuckles on the hand that, as far as she’s aware, she’d been holding since they fell asleep in the early hours of the morning. Until Chloe rolled away from her three minutes ago, evidently to look at her phone, anyway.

“What?” Beca mumbles, shifting on to her side so she can look at Chloe without twisting her neck, “thanks for waking me up, by the way,” she adds, feigning grumpiness.

“You’ve been awake for ages, Beca,” is her response, with a slight eye-roll. “Veronica sent me a round-up of what’s being said about us last night. Apparently, we’re gal pals.”

“Isn’t that what they call lesbian couples when they don’t want to say they’re a couple?” Beca raises an eyebrow, “but like, when they know they are?”

“Usually, but apparently they’re not actually saying we’re together they’re just… Doing that? I don’t even know,” Chloe says, shifting closer, “I’m kinda surprised, there’s all kinds of heart eyes happening in the press photos for the song and from the performance.”

“I’m sure there is, but they don’t even know I’m gay, so…” Beca grins.

“How?” her response is teasing, and Beca just laughs.

“Beale, I’ve not dated anyone in a decade, as much as you and all our friends know I’m super gay… they have no evidence either way, of course they think I’m straight.”

“Mm, maybe, but I know that you… uh… maybe I shouldn’t know that,” Chloe turns shy, rolling back on her back. Beca follows her, of course, cuddling up to her side, well aware of what she’s referring to.

“My first manager made me see a psychologist because I was like, full-on depressed, and the psychologist suggested I could try and forcibly move on. I was a massive asshole and ran out on girls as soon as we fucked because I was so uncomfortable and it only happened three times, and I know paparazzi got some shit, and I know you’ve probably seen it,” Beca’s smile is a little more forced, now, and Chloe nods.

“Couldn’t stop myself from looking, but… Have you, ever, um, seen anything about me?” she asks, awkwardly, not entirely sure she even wants to have this conversation, letting her own jealousy and guilt bubble under the surface, although it feels necessary in a way. She doesn’t want to hide anything, and she doesn’t want Beca to feel like she has to hide anything.

“I mean, I saw you making out with a dude named Tom once and kinda assumed you were with him for a while… but otherwise, no, I’ve made an effort not to,” she admits, Chloe sighing.

“I wasn’t. With Tom, I mean. I know I left with him after you kicked us out of the car, but I just took him back to his parents’ house and went back to mine, and never talked to him again. And otherwise, uh, there was a guy for a while. A year, four years after we graduated. He got too serious too quickly and he proposed on our anniversary, and I just… ran. He wasn’t the person I wanted to ask me that, and I got some shit for a while for dumping him like that, but,” Chloe bites her lip, “the media never quite seems to have our best interests at heart. Being with him just made me feel guilty.”

“Ugh, yeah. I mean, I’ve kind of… just been kind of an asshole, so I haven’t really got a right to complain that they labelled me that, because it was true. Although somehow I missed that you dated a guy for a whole year,” Beca entwines her hand with Chloe’s, resting on her stomach, as she speaks. It’s calming, for both of them. “Too serious too quickly? Do I need to worry about the part where I kinda told you I want to marry you someday and that I’m in love with you before we were even technically together?”

“No,” Chloe laughs, “I almost told you as much two minutes after you were kinda yelling at me for fucking up eleven years ago.”

“True, okay, we’re good then. Not sure how I feel about the dude, though,” Beca’s admission is honest, although there is no heaviness to her tone.

“It was… Aubrey introduced me to him. Thought it’d be good for me. It really wasn’t, and I pulled away from him from the start, it was just…” Chloe trails off, her own tone much darker. “I really wish I hadn’t listened to her so much.”

“I get it. She’s… heavy-handed. I really hated her in high school, she was so controlling and she wasn’t nice to you, either, let alone me. But I… I hope she’s changed? Grown up?” Beca speaks carefully, cautious of insulting the woman who she guesses is still Chloe’s best friend. Chloe sighs heavily before she speaks.

“Yeah. She was a bitch when we were younger, and I still don’t know if I believe she didn’t write that note, because she almost said as much at times, or at least, she kept hounding me to accept the college offer in Atlanta. But at the same time… she has changed considerably, especially since being in the industry and dealing with all that kind of shit. She’s still controlling, but she’s more concerned about scheduling and legal shit than my social life. And that note could have just as easily been Tom, wonder where he’s at these days… Probably nowhere good.”

“Yeah, I guess so…” Beca trails off, not sure how else to respond to Chloe’s monologue. They fall into silence, Beca breaking it a minute later, “are you up to much this week?”

“I mean, press because of the awards, that’s the other thing Veronica was texting me about. I’m sure you’ll have that too, I know some of it will be together. Otherwise… I want to take you out to dinner on Wednesday night, and I’m quite content to spend today right here.”

“That sounds good to me. Are we… what are we going to do about press? I mean, I know, they suck, and they try and ruin everything good, but… I don’t think this is going to stay quiet for long, y’know?” Beca’s voice turns cautious, Chloe squeezing her again-entwined hands in response.

“They’ll have a lot to say about us being together, and I know very little of it will be good, but yeah, I don’t want to have to put all sorts of effort into pretending we aren’t when we are. Part of me wants to just say… we do nothing, and they’ll eventually find out, but then… the whole gal pals thing irks me.”

“It really pisses me off, honestly, and like, god, I’m thirty fucking years old-“

“Twenty-nine,” Chloe cuts her off, adamantly, “don’t make me feel older than I am.”

“You’re literally a year older than me, chill,” Beca laughs, “close enough, anyway, but I’m too old to be coming out again of all things, I did that shit when I was 14. I’ve almost done it a few times, though, done a big statement, because there’s some bullshit been made up about me and some guy and I really hate that, but… I think we’re gonna need to actually announce it. Otherwise they’ll… straightwash us.”

“Ugh. Yeah. I know what you mean. Well, I guess we do that, then.”


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really want a less negative version of the raised eyebrow emoji to exist just for the purposes of this note.  
> But... maybe the negative is warranted? 🤨😏

Dinner on Wednesday, much to their annoyance, becomes a trip to New York on Wednesday to do the NBC evening shows.

“At least,” Chloe reasons when Beca wanders into her dressing room ten minutes before the show starts, always seeming to be ready early, “we’re both here and we’re doing this together, I guess.”

“Yeah. Are we still gonna announce we’re dating? Apparently Fallon’s asking why he’s been told to segue into an announcement about Sunday night and he’s confused,” she explains, paraphrasing Jackie in her own room a few minutes earlier, and Chloe nods.

“If you’re cool with it, then yeah, I want to – Aubrey?” she turns her attention to where Aubrey is sitting across the room thumbing through something on your phone, “is there time to get him in here quickly? We’ll clue him up beforehand, it’ll be smoother.” Beca gives her approval with a nod as Aubrey throws her phone onto a chair and stalks out of the room without a word.

“Is she okay with us dating?” Beca asks, and Chloe shrugs.

“I don’t really know, I can’t get it out of her – she hasn’t said anything negative, but she hasn’t been super positive either. She’s just dodging every time I ask. She’s going to have be, though, obviously, because it’s not her decision. I’m not making that mistake again.”

The person in question returns only seconds later, a characteristically fake-exuberant Jimmy Fallon entering immediately behind her.

“Chloe! Beca! So nice to see you both!” he greets them with quick hugs and a vague wave to the others in the room, and they both return the greeting before letting him continue, “so- there’s something about an announcement?”

“Yeah, nothing particularly earth-shattering, just that Beca and I are dating. As of very recently – like, during the OSCARs recently, but we have history from back in high school, so yeah,” Chloe explains messily, groaning inwardly when his eyes sparkle at the mention of history. She should’ve just left it at dating.

“Oh okay, well, congrats I guess! Announcing it in your solo bit, Chloe, or when you’re together?”

“My bit,” she answers, with a nod. He throws half a thumbs up in acknowledgement as someone from the show appears and pulls him out of the room off to something else.

“Hey, Aubrey?” Chloe pulls her attention again once he’s left, Aubrey looking back up from where she had again disappeared into her phone with a glare.

“What now?” her reply is snappy, and Chloe rolls her eyes.

“I don’t know where you’re sitting with this whole thing, but, regardless, Beca is my girlfriend, and it’s not going to kill you to acknowledge that. You make a big deal out of the fact that you’re my friend, not just my manager, and I agree, but you’re not being a great friend – or manager – at the moment by skirting around any mention of what is the biggest and most positive thing that has happened to me in an extremely long time. This is not ten years ago, you don’t get to be a bitch because you’re jealous I’m close to someone other than you, and you certainly don’t get to try and control my social life. I’ve grown up enough that I won’t let you. You’ve grown up too, act like it.”

“Not now,” is Aubrey’s only reply, both Beca and Chloe sighing and moving their attention away from her.

When Chloe is called to move backstage ten minutes of tense avoiding the subject later, the first worry in her mind is that Aubrey and Beca are now in a room together with only a team of stylists practiced at staying out of her business as buffer, if those stylists even stay in the room. She’s got an image to maintain, or at least promote, though, so she runs through a handful of breathing exercises and runs one of her favourite, non-Beca-Mitchell-related, current songs through her head to try and hype herself up.

* * *

“Beca,” Aubrey calls her back as she moves to leave the room, planning on returning to her own dressing room for the seven or so minutes until she’ll be called, not having any reason to stay here. Jackie’s a decent person to hang out with – better than Aubrey. She is tempted to pretend not to hear her but thinks better of it.

“Yes?” she answers, turning back around, although not moving back into the room from the doorway.

“I-“ Aubrey starts, immediately cutting herself off, hesitating for ten seconds before she speaks again, “She wants to be with you. She always has. I’ve always thought she could do better, you were an emotionally stunted, irresponsible child, you don’t have any real skills, you lucked out in your career and now you’re just an entitled asshole. I wrote the note because I knew it’d get you out of the picture. I wish it’d worked for longer.”

The flash of anger that rushes through Beca is almost enough to make her scream, or throw up, or literally just stride across the room and punch Aubrey in the face. Instead, she closes her eyes, taking a long, deep, shuddering breath.

“You need to tell Chloe everything you just said. Later. Not when she’s about to record an interview like you’ve just fucking done to me,” she opens her eyes to shoot Aubrey the most venomous glare she thinks she’s ever managed before turning on her heel and returning to her own dressing room, desperately attempting to push the emotions rising in her head down. She should be fine, she hopes. She has ten years’ experience at pushing shit down. She just has to keep it inside, because she knows if she lets it out, hears it again even from her own mouth, it’s going to be ugly.

* * *

“I heard you had an interesting night on Sunday, Chloe?” Jimmy asks, to start their interview, and she fakes half a laugh.

“I did, yes, for many reasons, Jimmy,” she answers, wondering where he is going first. He goes to the OSCARs, first focussing on her solo one, which she’s happy to spend thirty seconds elaborating on how thankful she is for. It’s not her first OSCAR, she won best supporting actress two years ago, but it’s her first main-role one and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t enjoy actually winning it.

“Now, you also won another OSCAR for best song alongside your co-star and friend, Beca Mitchell, who will be joining us after the break – but I heard there was something else exciting that happened Sunday night with you two?” he pushes, when she finishes, and Chloe nods, feeling her largely TV-constructed smile be replaced with an annoyingly sappy genuine one.

“Yeah, we did- we’re dating, now, actually, and it’s been a long time coming, fifteen years or so, but it’s real now and we’re really excited.”

“Fifteen years? That’s a long time to wait to ask someone out, were you that nervous?” he jokes, and she shakes her head.

“Someone – okay, me, we all know this – messed up really badly and took away eleven years where we should’ve been together. Before that, yeah, we were in high school, and you know everyone’s nervous to ask anyone out in high school. I did actually, though! I asked her out, and we were kind of dating for like two weeks, then I ruined everything, of course,” she pauses, hoping Jimmy will cut in, but he doesn’t, “but she asked me out, this time, when we were both backstage one point during the evening.”

“Before or after your performance? Because it certainly looks like it might’ve been before…” he trails off, pulling out a picture of their end-of-performance hand-holding.

“You know, I am an actress, I can fake those kind of looks too. And so can she, actually, I know you haven’t seen her act for a job, but she can do it,” she dodges the question carefully.

“You know, we’ve got the admission that you did something horrible a few times and the biggest rumour I’ve heard was that you stole Beca’s boyfriend, but it sounds like that isn’t true…?” he pushes, and she sighs.

“Oh, it definitely wasn’t that… it was super immature, though, but, hey, it’s a long story, so maybe another time,” she answers with a wink, Jimmy evidently annoyed by her avoidance but unable to do anything about it as his cue card guys prompt him to call for the ad break. He hides it with an exaggerated laugh, cutting to commercial.

They small talk about nothing in particular during the break, Chloe’s stylist coming out to do whatever with her hair (why they can’t just leave it she isn’t entirely sure) while Jimmy talks to one of his producers. Much to both their relief for wildly different reasons, aside from some initial light teasing, Jimmy focusses on them working together way more than dating once they’re both sitting on the couch.

“Ever thought about releasing an album together?” he pushes, Chloe leaning back and looking over at Beca to prompt her to take the question.

“Well, ever? Yeah, definitely, when we were in junior year, we effectively made an album of covers that we did together – but these days in terms of releasing something, not really. I mean, you never know what could happen, but I know Chlo is more focussed on acting and things, and at the moment I’m doing a lot more producing other people than my own stuff,” she answers, trying to brush off the nickname she accidentally throws into the middle.

“It takes a lot of work to actually put together a whole album, Beca always understates that, and when I’ve got movies shooting one after the other it’s not something I really have time to do – but I mean, we love singing together, as you might’ve been able to tell on Sunday night, so you never know!” Chloe adds, “and you never know, maybe I’ll convince her to actually appear in a movie sometime?”

“Mm, yeah, probably not,” Beca retorts, lightly, a comfortably joking end to their interview.

* * *

“You okay?” Chloe pushes her on their trip between Fallon’s studio and Seth Meyers’, the other people in the elevator with them making a point of acting like they aren’t listening, turning to face away from them.

“Yeah,” Beca answers, shaking her head silently at the same time, so only Chloe can see. Chloe nods in understanding, reaching for her hand and holding it tight, both of them holding off that conversation for later.

They are, technically, appearing on Seth’s show on different days – Chloe Wednesday night, Beca the following day – but their interviews are taped consecutively at the request of their teams, partially because they were on Fallon together and partially because they both had commitments in LA on Thursday afternoon. Both interviews pass without any drama or extra revelations, and by 9pm, they are sitting together in Chloe’s hotel room. There was a room for each of them for the sake of anyone who might be paying enough attention to notice if there wasn’t, but there was never any doubt one of them would remain unused.

“Can I ask if you’re okay now?” Chloe pushes, softly, and Beca sighs.

“I’m not, really, and I’m in a difficult situation. Aubrey said something, but it’s something that I want you to hear from her, not me, and I hate that because she’s gone back to LA already it leaves us in a situation where I’m having to be all sketchy like this and not tell you, but I just…” she trails off, shrugging.

“It’s okay, Becs, I understand,” she responds, leaning across the already-small gap between them to kiss Beca’s cheek, “I love you; you mean more to me than anyone or anything else in the world ever will. I… don’t know what she’s said, but she won’t be getting off lightly, in any regard.”

“I love you too,” Beca answers, shifting to allow them to kiss properly. She wants to move past it, to sink into the comfort of Chloe’s embrace, but they both lie awake tossing and turning in worry all night, pretending they can’t tell the other is in the same position.


	7. Chapter 7

Beca directs them to Chloe’s house when they arrive back in LA, Chloe sending a text to Aubrey to instruct her to meet them there. She’s already inside the house when they arrive, having returned to LA the previous night, standing in the middle of the living room.

“What the fuck did you say to Beca?” Chloe starts, jumping right into it, taking an aggressive stance three steps away from Aubrey.

Veronica and Jackie walk into the room as she speaks, having flown back to LA with Beca and Chloe, quickly moving to stand off to the side when they see the confrontation taking place. They had been separately informed by both their respective clients that this wasn’t going to be pretty.

“I didn’t insult her or-“ she starts, adamant, but Beca cuts her off, stood just as aggressively beside Chloe, struggling to keep her temper in check with the knowledge of what the woman standing across from them did.

“We don’t care what you didn’t do, although that’s a fucking lie. Tell her exactly what you told me,” Beca emphasises, Aubrey visibly flinching at the iciness of her tone. It takes another full minute of silence before Aubrey speaks up again, her focus turned to Chloe.

“I know you want to be with her, but you can do better. She was an immature kid when we were in school, and she’s an entitled asshole with no skills now. She’s only popular by luck and the pathetic taste in music of modern society, she will drag you down, and I wish that when I wrote that note it had kept her away for good like it was meant to.”

“You WHAT?!” Chloe screams, moving as if she’s going to lunge at Aubrey, but Beca places a hand on her arm, giving her just enough of a moment to realise she shouldn’t do anything physical lest this end up in a criminal court. She doesn’t, however, lower her voice, “you ruined more than ten years of my life, destroyed my relationship with the person that has always meant more to me that anyone else-“ she has to pause to take a breath, feeling as if she’s going to pass out from the intensity of the anger coursing through her veins, “-every time I hesitated, every time I felt like I should reach out and try and fix things, every time I realised that deep down I never believed she’d say anything like that, you told me not to, you told me she wanted nothing to do with me, you told me she wanted to ruin my career, and now you come up with this fucking bullshit? You didn’t just write that goddamn note – you reinforced that bullshit for eleven fucking years!”

Her voice is approaching hoarse, and she’s gasping for breath, and Beca is moving to wrap a comforting arm around her, but she isn’t finished.

“You have claimed to be my friend, to be looking out for my best interests, yet you’ve pulled me away from the one thing that you knew would make me happier than anything else. You don’t get to tell me what I should do with my life, and I wish I knew that when we were younger, but I certainly do now. You’re a controlling bitch, you are not a friend, and you’re fucking fired, there will be paperwork and an NDA served on you fucking tomorrow, I’m not paying you another goddamn cent. Give me my key and get out of my fucking house, I never want to see you again!”

Her voice is raspy and broken, by the time she finishes, but she knows the fire in her eyes is still there, watching as Aubrey wordlessly pulls the key from her pocket, throwing it to the floor with unnecessary force and turning to walk out of the room, out of the house, and Chloe hopes, out of their lives. She hears the front door open and slam closed, and she breaks, turning into Beca’s embrace and starting to sob, burying her face in Beca’s hair against her cheek. She feels tears against her own shoulder where Beca’s head rests, and it makes her cry harder, only vaguely able to register the sound of Veronica immediately jumping on the phone to her lawyers.

The end up on the couch, somehow, although neither Chloe or Beca are quite sure how, having not let any space emerge between them. Chloe has stopped sobbing, in part because she’s losing her voice and only silent gasps were continuing to come out, and she knows she should be getting to work on figuring out what happens now that she’s just fired the only manager she’s ever had, but she doesn’t want to let go of Beca.

“The documentation to cease her contract will be served on her within the hour, they’re working on obtaining all documentation regarding current negotiations, and a non-disclosure agreement is being prepared regarding all personal and professional matters both past and present relating to both of you,” Veronica explains, sitting close beside them. “And I… god, I’m so sorry this has happened, tell me how long you want off and I’ll make it happen-“

“Same here, Beca,” Jackie speaks up, Chloe feeling Beca nod against her shoulder.

“Start with a week. For both of us,” Beca mumbles. Chloe attempts to make an agreeing comment, but she indeed has no voice, and instead nods, hoping someone can see the movement.

“Do you want us to stay? To be left alone? To call anyone else?” Veronica asks.

“Stacie,” Beca answers, after a moment, reluctantly separating herself from Chloe but only enough so they can see each other, foreheads pressed together and a cascade of tousled red and brown hair giving them some degree of privacy.

“Jess,” Chloe mouths, knowing there is no point actually speaking.

“Jess,” Beca repeats, and for the benefit of the others, “Chlo’s lost her voice.”

“I can see why – but she deserved that,” Jackie responds, before both her and Veronica step out of the room to make the additional requested calls. It’s only once she know they’re out of the room that Chloe pulls back, properly, detangling herself from Beca only enough to shift around so she’s pressed against her side.

“I’m so sorry I ever listened to her,” Chloe rasps out, her voice broken and barely audible, but Beca shakes her head.

“Chlo, she was your friend, you had every right to think she wouldn’t do that, I don’t blame you in the slightest,” she reassures, “we’ve already worked through everything that was us – this is entirely on her, and I wanted so badly for it to not be her, for it to have been Tom or some dickhead or something, because I know how much fucking pain you’re in right now and you don’t deserve that in the slightest.”

“Thank you,” Chloe whispers as best she can.

“I almost punched her when she told me, too, you know. I didn’t actually go to lunge at her, like you did, but I was so tempted.”

“I’ve never been so angry in my life, I-“ Chloe cuts herself off, trying to clear her throat.

“Chlo, baby, it’s okay, we can talk later. Don’t hurt yourself,” Beca murmurs, cupping her cheek in one hand to run a soothing thumb across her cheekbone.

It’s enough, with the pet name, for the last remaining thread of immediate anger tied around her heart to break, and her eyes flood with another round of tears, but they’re calmer. She cries, softly, for the time that they’ve lost, for the betrayal she feels, for the guilt for not seeing through her. But Beca is holding her, soft reassurances mumbled in her ear until they morph into a song – one of Beca’s first songs from her first album, a quiet confirmation that it was indeed written with her in mind – and her tears are suddenly in thankfulness that she’s getting the happiness she has always wanted and that, maybe, she’s almost done enough repairing to actually deserve it.

Their friends arrive together, or at least walk in together, some immeasurable time later and Beca sees the immediate worry written across their faces that seems to soften seeing them wrapped around each other. It’s then that Beca wishes she’d asked what they’d been told on the phone, but she guesses the others have left.

“What’s going on? Are you two okay, like, relationship wise?” Stacie asks, hurriedly, and Beca nods.

“Our relationship is perfect, but, uh,” she starts, “before I went on to join Chloe on Fallon last night Aubrey told me she did write the note in Chloe’s locker pretending to be from me, and she told Chloe just before, when we got back here.”

“Jesus fuck,” Jess responds, moving over to the couch, away from them, sinking into it and burying her face in her hands. Stacie, for her part, seems to be frozen in shock until she bursts into a flurry of movement, pacing across the room.

“What the actual- what- she- where is she? She’s your fucking manager, she, she-“

“I fired her. And screamed at her,” Chloe manages, her voice still raspy although almost managing to get through the statement without breaking. Stacie lets out a strangled laugh in response.

“Good. She’s dead to me.”

* * *

They wake the next morning to aggressive knocking against Chloe’s bedroom door. She knows she should answer, it’s her house, but she doesn’t have the emotional capacity to deal with the world right now, or with other people, save the woman she has been sleeping half on top of.

“Who is it?” Beca calls, evidently realising Chloe isn’t going to.

“Veronica, Jackie, publicist teams,” comes the reply from a voice Beca now clearly recognised as Veronica’s.

“Um, why?” She calls in response.

“Aubrey’s gone crazy online,” comes the reluctant answer.

“Motherfucking bitch,” Chloe speaks up, rapidly sitting up and climbing out of bed, finding her dressing gown to throw over her pyjamas. Not that these people haven’t seen her in worse states of dress. For her part, Beca scrambles to change out of pyjamas borrowed from Chloe into her own clothes from the previous day - she’s never met Chloe’s publicist directly and her own team have never seen her in much less than business attire and she doesn’t feel like changing that.

They meet at the dining table, Beca and Chloe sitting at one side with a handful of publicists and media managers opposite, Veronica and Jackie at each head of the table.

“Thank you for stepping up, Veronica,” Chloe tells her quietly as they first sit down. It should be her manager there, not agent, but she doesn’t have one of those right now. Veronica smiles in response, brushing off the comment, and Chloe makes a mental note to arrange a pay rise.

“So, uh, Veronica & Jackie told us what they know, so basically, Aubrey has gone on a tirade online about Beca being manipulative and emotionally vacant and a shit person, borderline abusive, and you being weak and unable to stand up to her, effectively called both of you stupid and materialistic for your career choices, and she’s claimed Beca convinced you to fire her because she won’t let you have friends,” Chloe’s publicist summarises, Beca and Chloe both sighing deeply in response.

“Okay, well that’s all complete bullshit,” Chloe exclaims, although her voice cracks as she speaks and it lessens it’s force. “Sorry, hurt my throat screaming at her last night.”

“We figured that much, but it’s gaining traction and we need to get some sort of damage control out as quickly as possible,” Chloe’s publicist reinforces.

“We think that it’s going to need to come from you, Chloe, or a joint statement, not just Beca, given what’s been said,” Beca’s publicist offers.

“I’d prefer a joint one, I want to be clear that we’re... like, a team, I guess? Not controlling each other or anything, but, equals. And I think joint says that more than anything else can,” Chloe suggests.

“I’m cool with that,” Beca adds.

“How do you want to do it? Write something up with the normal channels, push it out to network groups? Or do you want to do social media, to get speed of delivery?” One of their media managers asks, Beca shrugging and Chloe tilting her head.

“It’d be very personal and revealing I guess, you can absolutely veto the idea Beca or anyone else but... should we talk on video and explain everything and social media that, instead of a written statement?”

“I wouldn’t veto that, we’re going to have to talk about it on camera at some point, why not control that part?” Beca agrees, “Although I’d need a rough plan before.”

* * *

UPDATE: YOU GOTTA SEE CHLOE BEALE & BECA MITCHELL’S VIDEO

_By Entertainment Editorial_

We told you earlier that Chloe Beale’s (ex) manager had appeared online with a bunch of allegations about the actress’ new girlfriend Beca Mitchell being a controlling a**hole - we have a response!

(Scroll down for the full video)

Chloe & Beca made a “joint statement” which is apparently press speak for “cute ass video cuddling on a couch filmed by their mutual friend” denying all the allegations and explaining that Chloe FIRED Aubrey last night because they found out she was the one that set up their disagreement in high school!

Not only that - Chloe almost reached out to Beca to apologise a heap of times but Aubrey always stopped her!

Not cool, Aubrey! Although we finally know what their disagreement was... Beca (Aubrey) insulted Chloe’s acting dreams so Chloe cheated on Beca IN BECA’S CAR, knowing Beca could see them! Yeah, Beale, that’s cruel.

Beca, for her part, reinforced that she forgives Chloe because of the way she’s done everything in their recent attempt at friendship to repair trust between them - cute! - but she isn’t prepared to forgive Aubrey because she didn’t even apologise...

We’re waiting for Aubrey’s response! *side eye*

* * *

EXCUSE ME I AM DYING OVER CHLOE BEALE AND BECA MITCHELL

_By Fan Writer_

So there’s drama between Chloe Beale and Beca Mitchell and Chloe’s manager that she fired, whatever, that’s not why I’m here.

I’m here because Chloe and Beca responded by releasing a VIDEO OF THEM BEING INSANELY CUTE, HELLO

We all know Beca is known for showing 0 emotion ever, Chloe for being open with everything except relationships… this is not that.

There are heart eyes (even more than from their performance at the OSCARs on Sunday), there is cuddling, there is Beca Mitchell blushing and hiding behind her hands whenever Chloe compliments her… You really gotta see this, guys. It’s full of great quotes, but I have copied out some of my personal favourites below:

“the one thing that had been missing in my life for 11 years was Beca, and I was so happy just to be friends again, let alone being given another chance at dating”

“I am usually private about my feelings about pretty much everything, but it’s much harder to do that when you love someone as much as I do her” (you can guess which of them said that – but hey, Beca, apparently you do have some sweetness in you!)

“We can’t wait to move forward, together, happier than we have both been for a very long time” (Chloe)

And, of course, from their mutual friend Stacie who you’ve seen with Beca on red carpets sporadically throughout the last decade:

“Now the rest of the world gets to ship you sappy bitches like I have for twenty years!”, as she flipped the camera into selfie mode – apparently, she had been filming – and threw herself on the couch beside Beca.

(Beca’s grumpiness returned at that move, although she was laughing a lot more than usual).


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Delayed by a work conference that took 24 hours of my day for a week, but I have time again, and an update! Almost done!
> 
> (Wow I kinda hoped I would've started writing another of these Love Monster fics before I finished posting this one but I... have not)

“It’s like joint bank accounts but for famous people!” Stacie teases when they tell her about their plan to, instead of hiring an all new manager for Chloe, hire another from the same place as Jackie and switch all their contracts around to join their general teams into one super-team.

“Whatever, it makes sense, and apparently married couples tend to do it although having individual sub-groups within it which is what we’re doing,” Beca defends.

“You’re not married,” Stacie reminds her, Beca just rolling her eyes and shoving her away.

They return to post-OSCARs (and now, post-very-public-drama) promotion a week after everything happens, with new and carefully-designed press rules to minimise exactly how many times they have to repeat the story about what happened, as if the whole internet-using world hasn’t seen it already. Chloe’s got a line of potential projects to scan through given her OSCAR win, running all over LA to studios and offices to meet with producers and directors and casting agents, although thankfully, none requiring actual auditions. She’s glad she’s past that point in her career, her past work speaking for itself.

Beca is approached by movie studios, herself, however she quickly declines most of the offers, only giving non-committal maybes to a couple of single-song movie tie-ins. On the Thursday two weeks after Aubrey’s admission, she schedules a meeting with her boss at the studio. His eyebrows raise in surprise when she walks in with her contract lawyer and Jackie and places a stack of documents on the desk, facing him.

“I want to release another album. My contract does not currently cover financial arrangements for my own full album and the terms relating to single releases don’t cover album promotion, so, how do we fix that?”

“We’ll have an offer for you within the day,” he responds, quickly, Beca letting a small smile grace her face in response. It had been hell to negotiate out of her original contract which requested another album of her own immediately after the first – she’s expecting the studio to be fairly accommodating with her request to get back into it. Granted, she wants way better terms now than she got as a kid coming from nowhere. They’ve got enough profit out of her with all the collaboration stuff, her cut has been _tiny_ there.

She gets what she wants – a substantial cut of proceeds from sales and streaming licenses, full control over track listing and promotional direction – and, although she doesn’t exactly want it and she winces when she reads it, she accepts that the live performances section is a necessity.

Chloe, for her part, accepts two major projects, the first occupying roughly the same time that development of Beca’s album does. It keeps them both busy, and seeing each other way less than they would like, although neither blames the other.

“Do I really have to work Saturday? I’ve got four weeks left,” Beca complains one Thursday afternoon, “I was gonna spend Saturday with my goddamn girlfriend, I haven’t actually seen her for a week. At this rate I’m only gonna see her if I ask her to come into the studio with me-“

She pauses, the other producer she’s working with on the album raising an eyebrow as he realises where her train of thought has gone.

“Well, Saturday was because you need to come up with another single-grade song…” he trails off, and Beca sighs.

“Can’t say I don’t have ideas for that one. I’ll talk to her – but just, can we take Saturday off?”

“Yeah, I want to take my kids to Disneyland this weekend anyway.”

* * *

“Hey, Chlo?” Beca starts, stretching to try and wake her body up before taking a seat at the breakfast bar, watching her move across the kitchen to make their breakfast on Saturday morning. Beca had, unsurprisingly, ended up crashing at Chloe’s house straight after work the previous evening.

“Mm?” Chloe responds, glancing back for half a second to blow her a kiss good morning before turning back to the omelette on the stove. An unnecessary kiss, given what they were doing in her bed twenty minutes earlier.

“I know you’re busy enough at the moment, but… Any chance you want to be on my album?” she asks, not knowing how to make it any less blatant of a request.

“I mean, I’ll have to clear it with whoever, but yeah, definitely. I only care that I’m busy because I’m not spending more time with you, I will happily take even more busy if I’m working with you. And singing with you. You got a song in mind?”

“I’m working on it,” is her answer, with a small smile.

Their recording session is much more lively than their last, and in truth, Chloe is only really needed to be present for a day or two – she’s there longer, of course, making acquaintance with everyone working on Beca’s album (and a few of Beca’s coworkers who even she isn’t particularly familiar with) in between sitting in Beca’s office distracting her from her work. Not that either of them is complaining. It doesn’t become the lead single, but when the album’s track listing is intentionally leaked three weeks out from release date, the ‘Always Enough (feat. Chloe Beale)’ track is the one that generates the most hype. It’s the second single, released a day before the whole album.

“Will Chloe be on tour with you????” is the first question everyone asks her when said tour dates are released – US and Europe, for now, although the rest of the world is almost finalised too – and she wishes she could say yes, but in truth, they don’t know. Her tour starts in July, and she knows Chloe has July off (because it’s Beca’s 30th birthday and she’s got a suspicious week off around her birthday that she knows means Chloe has organised _something_ ), but it extends through to the following May, once you take into account the Asia and South America parts that are yet to be announced, and Chloe isn’t free for all that time. She’s filming in Canada in August and September, LA in November through to January, and she’s about to sign on another project for the first few months of the following year that she really can’t say no to.

Chloe sings with her on her opening night in New York, but by that point, they know it is a rare occurrence. She’s there for the following week moving down the east coast, but she doesn’t join her on stage. That is, until her Miami show, where she – with Jess and Stacie – rushes out between two songs and orchestrates a happy birthday sung by the whole stadium, much to Beca’s embarrassment. In truth, her birthday is the following day, and she’s quite happy to have their friends joining them for lunch on the day and equally happy that Chloe’s present is a holiday in Miami for the following few days where they are blissfully free of both responsibilities and other people.

Chloe flies back to LA, then, and Beca continues around the country with a sinking feeling that if she misses Chloe this much when they’re still in the same country and still talking every night because they’re in almost-identical time zones, it’s going to be much worse when she’s in another country.

She’s right. Don’t get her wrong, she still loves performing, and she appreciates that somehow there are literally thousands of people in all of these cities all over the world willing to spend like a hundred dollars to watch her awkwardly move around a stage singing for ninety minutes. It just reminds her, over and over, that touring is a combination of the highs of performing and the lows of lonely days off in cities where she knows no one, more tiring than any other work she’s ever had to do.

* * *

They are in Canada at the same time in early September, Chloe managing to negotiate a few days off an intense shooting schedule to accompany Beca around BC and Alberta. It’s a last-minute decision, but she goes on stage with her in Edmonton, knowing she’ll get an earful from her team the following day – but she just wanted to perform with her again. The next time they see each other in person is Christmas, Beca rejecting the offer to do a bunch of Christmas TV promotion in the UK in favour of flying back to LA for the week to spend it with Chloe. Chloe, for her part, skips her own traditional family Christmas in Atlanta, although not without some argument.

“Mom, I love you all, I really do, and you know Beca does too, but I just… we’ve not seen each other for months, and I miss her like anything, I just want to spend as much time with her as I can now because she’s flying back to Europe after New Years and the next time we’re definitely in the same country is May…”

“You can spend time with her if you both come for Christmas with us, Chloe,” her mother pushes, Chloe just sighing.

“I know, Mom, but it’s different. I… Beca and I will host Christmas next year or something, okay? We’ll make sure we’re all together, everyone can come to our- um, my house, I mean.”

Her mother relents, eventually, and they spend Christmas holed up in Chloe’s house, creating their own Christmas traditions. They celebrate their eleven-month anniversary as if it’s a year – by the time their actual anniversary rolls around in late January, Beca is in back in Europe and Chloe is back at work. They manage one more planned meeting, in March, when Chloe finds time between filming one movie and promoting one she filmed the previous year to make her way to Japan.

“I promise I’m taking the rest of the year off, once you’re home,” she tells Beca, as they say their reluctant goodbyes four days later in Tokyo, both of them about to board planes to head in opposite directions.

“I can’t wait to be home,” Beca responds, but she smiles as she says it. Seeing Chloe again has given her the boost she needed to push through the rest of the tour.

She does manage to maintain that energy, for the most part, through the rest of Asia and Australia and New Zealand, but the second she boards a plane in mid-May from Auckland back to LA she is out, ready to swear off ever touring again, trying to forget that the contract she signed to get this album out included a requirement that she release at least one more within the next two years. She sleeps for most of the flight, grumbling at Jackie when she wakes her up two hours out to get at least some degree of hair and makeup done so she looks less dead, because apparently the media know when she’s getting into LAX and will swarm her at the airport. Just what she wants when she’s physically and emotionally exhausted from ten months of touring.

“When is your next album coming out?!” one of them yells unnecessarily loud just near her ear as she tries to make her way to the car waiting for her.

“I’ve just finished touring this one, wait a bit!” she responds, blanking out all the other questions as she clambers into the back door of the car opened for her. She doesn’t bring out the legit bodyguards often, but for some reason airports seem to be paparazzi bullshit hotspots. Jackie joins her in the backseat, although she gets out of the car at the label’s office.

“Driver’s been told to take you to your house, but,” she informs Beca as she leaves the car, Beca immediately instructing said driver to change that.

* * *

“Beca!” Chloe pulls her inside and straight into a firm kiss when Beca knocks on her door. She does have a key, it’s just that it is at her own apartment across town. “I thought you were going to your place and I was coming over tomorrow? Not that I’m complaining in the slightest,” she adds, when they break apart and move towards the living room.

“When I said I wanted to come home I kinda meant to you, not just LA,” Beca admits, Chloe responding to her statement by pulling her into another, much longer, kiss.

“Move in with me?” Chloe asks, slightly out of breath, “I keep accidentally calling this our house. Kinda want it to be… or like, somewhere else could be, or your apartment, I don’t know. I just want to live with you.”

“We’ll start with here and maybe we’ll buy something else soon, who knows, but yes, definitely,” Beca agrees.

Two days later – Beca sleeps for a solid eighteen hours after she gets home, it certainly can’t be any sooner – Chloe sends out a text inviting a handful of their friends to dinner at “our house” the following day.

“So, was the ‘our house’ thing a slip up, or…?” Stacie pushes them, the moment they answer the door together and invite her in, Chloe laughing in response.

“Not a slip up. I’m moving in here,” Beca confirms.

“Ugh, like, I’m glad because you two definitely should be living together but also does this mean I no longer get to have a key to your place and turn up all the time to demand you cook for me?” she complains, putting on an overstated pout.

“Yes, Stacie, it definitely means that. But Chloe likes hosting, and I’m cooking tonight, so… just none of the uninvited stuff,” Beca shakes her head.

“But that’s the fun part!”

* * *

House inspections weren’t something that Beca had ever considered she might enjoy – she figured that, yeah, she’d probably have to do them at some point in her life, but not for fun – but, apparently, she was wrong, because wandering around houses in the Hollywood Hills listening to Chloe murmur about how _their_ sofa wouldn’t fit in that living room and _their_ dog (because, yes, they adopted a dog together as soon as Beca sold her apartment) needed a better-fenced backyard because he was apparently part-kangaroo and jumped over goddamn everything-

Yeah. It was nice. It made her feel way more things than she would’ve been comfortable feeling three years ago. Even though they’re not finding a single place that doesn’t have some deal-breaker for them, not quite perfect enough to fit in with their lifestyle. Honestly, most of them are just… kind of too big, and empty, given they’re just two people with no plans to add any more. Maybe another dog, though, because the dog trainer they’ve been working with suggested it might help Georgia calm down. And yes, Beca had let Chloe name their dog after their home state.

Beca quietly tells Chloe the night before that she thinks the eleventh house they are going to inspect seems a little more promising, although she’s mildly disheartened by Chloe’s shrug. When they enter it the next morning, however, Chloe’s murmured complaints never seem to start, replaced with a less-than-subtle sparkling glance in Beca’s direction that the real estate agent obviously picks up on. It’s the one, though – four bedrooms, only two of which would remain that way given Beca is going to turn one into a home studio-slash-office and Chloe wants to give the dogs their own room.

(“Chloe, stop saying dogs, we only have one”

“You know we’re getting another the second we move in!”)

It’s in a quieter, less explicitly celebrity-filled part of the hills above LA, too, and there’s a swimming pool and a backyard larger than they probably need and an open plan kitchen/dining/living area perfect for Chloe’s growing fondness for having all their friends over instead of going out; and a separate, cosy, fireplace-included formal living room that they know they’ll spend most of their time in. They get a fifteen-day settlement and it costs less than they sold Chloe’s place for, not that they really care about that part.

Their lawyers force them to hold an entirely unnecessary meeting about the purchase, because those same lawyers were still preventing them combining bank accounts.

“Half,” they answer, in unison, when Beca’s lawyer asks how they both want to split the purchase cost. It’s a very short meeting.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and now for a fluffy finale...  
> I wish I could say I'll have more fic soon, but honestly, I've got nothing written, so I guess I'll see what happens.  
> Hope you've all enjoyed the ride in this particular universe!

True to Chloe’s promise a year earlier, they send out an invitation in October for Chloe’s family to all join them for Christmas at their house (they considered bringing it forward to thanksgiving, until Stacie suggested they throw a massive friendsgiving thing instead and yeah that was a great idea and involved way more alcohol and way less awkward questions about their financial position from Chloe’s more distant aunts than a family thanksgiving).

Beca invites both her parents too, as an afterthought, and her Dad’s new wife who she still struggles to refer to as her stepmother. She’s surprised when her mother accepts – they hadn’t talked more than a cordial greeting card for years – and not at all surprised when her father and Sheila decline. Sheila has a big family, and that’s her Dad’s family now too, apparently, not her. She’s old enough that she doesn’t cry over that realisation, but she still appreciates the tight hug Chloe pulls her into.

Chloe’s always been big on Christmas, and Beca’s always been big on Chloe’s enthusiasm around Christmas despite being not particularly fond of the holiday herself post-her parents’ divorce in her middle school years, although the year it happened Chloe’s family had quietly pulled her into their own Christmas celebration and it was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for her.

They don’t go overboard on the house, but they do pick out a real tree and decorate it with surprising visual coherence and success in early December. A week out from the gathering, they’re both off work, and Beca reluctantly agrees to help Chloe cover their front and back yards and the main living room in twinkling lights, although she also DIY-installs another smoke alarm in the living room at the same time.

“It’s not related, I swear,” she lies, and Chloe just laughs.

Georgia and Callie – Chloe had kept up the naming theme with their second dog who, as promised, was adopted exactly two days after they moved in. Beca vetoed outright naming her California. – aren’t as into misbehaviour as they were a couple of months ago, but they’re still dogs, so they don’t go much further with decorations, worried that they will simply become dog chew toys. Of course, Chloe does bring home a bunch of reindeer and Santa dog toys when she goes out to buy last-minute food on Christmas Eve.

Chloe’s parents are staying with them for a few days, and they arrive on the morning of the 24th – while Chloe is out, just as Beca had quietly planned behind her back.

“Beca! So lovely to see you, what a gorgeous house you guys have got!” Chloe’s Mum exclaims, Beca letting herself be pulled into two Beale-standard hugs.

“Yeah, we’re really enjoying it, it’s exactly what we wanted – and it’s so nice to see both of you, too, Chloe is just out at the moment getting some last-minute food supplies. She made me promise to keep the dogs outside if you arrived while she was gone, she wants to introduce them to you…” Beca trails off, falling into a comfortable, warm conversation with them as she guides them to the spare room to set their bags down and then gives them a brief tour of the house. She’s always liked Chloe’s parents.

“So, when’s the engagement happening?” Greg asks, clearly teasing, once they settle in the kitchen with cups of coffee.

“Greg! You can’t ask her that!” Claire scolds him, but Beca just laughs.

“So, um… Kinda planned for her to not be around when you guys arrived so I could ask you something…” Beca starts, suddenly nervous as she grips more tightly onto the mug she is holding. This should be fine, right? They’ll think it’s cute that she’s asking and they’re clearly okay with her asking Chloe to marry her.

“Ohmigod!” Claire almost squeals, Beca and Greg both visibly wincing.

“You’re telling me to calm down? Let her talk,” he turns the scolding back on his wife, before they both turn back to watch Beca take a deep breath.

“I want to marry Chloe, I’ve known that for years, and her and I have been talking about it – well, since we started talking again, but before I do ask her, I was wondering if I could… get your blessing, to do so?” Beca bites her lip, not satisfied with the messy way she asked, glancing down at the bench.

“Of course, Beca, you’ve been part of our family since you were kids, and we’d love for that to be official,” Claire answers, warmly, shifting around the kitchen bench to pull her into a hug.

“What she said,” Greg agrees, once Claire has returned to her seat beside him, “But can I ask when it’s happening now?” he dodges the poke to his side that his wife delivers in response, watching Beca nod.

“I mean, I don’t know about engagement, because she has to say yes for that… But I’m asking soon. Like, really soon. I considered doing it tomorrow, in front of everyone, because I know she loves that kind of stuff, but… It’s not really my thing, and I think she loves that stuff for other people more so than ourselves. So it will be just us, and it’ll be within the week.”

“I think that sounds fantastic,” Claire responds, Beca simply nodding before their conversation moves to lighter topics, Chloe arriving home only ten minutes later and happily greeting her parents.

* * *

“How you going?” Chloe asks, wrapping her arms around Beca and pulling her hands away from the food she’s finishing preparing to force her to hug her back. It’s 12:30pm on Christmas Day, and they handled most of the actual preparation yesterday, so there’s only a couple of things to do before they serve lunch in a few minutes. Beca just needed a moment – there are no less than 30 Beales, including five children under ten she’s never met before, in her house – but she has no problem with Chloe invading that moment. Other than the fact that their kitchen is very open, and she can see Chloe’s Mum wink at her from where she’s talking to one of Chloe’s aunts and Chloe’s older sister across near the door out to their backyard. At least, she’s reasoned, it’s a standard winter California day, so it’s moderately warm and sunny and the kids are having fun running around with the dogs outside, drawing away much of the attention.

“Okay,” Beca answers, honestly, “but I’m not going to get this stuff done with you stealing my arms like that.”

“Mm, but I wanted a hug,” Chloe answers, “and as much as I have been hugged by a million people with the surname Beale today, kind of wanted a Mitchell hug.”

“My mother is just over there,” Beca responds sarcastically, Chloe laughing and narrowly avoiding grabbing more attention than Beca wants right now in the process.

“Nope, wanted your hug, my love. But hey, maybe when we get married I’ll become Chloe Mitchell and I can just hug myself for Mitchell hugs…” she trails off, winking at Beca as she detangles their arms and wanders back off to talk to her younger brother, evidently satisfied Beca is coping in the kitchen. It almost makes Beca wish she hadn’t decided not to ask her during the gift exchange that will follow their lunch.

They chose to forego gifts for each other, this year, but there was a Secret Santa amongst the adults and the kids each got a stack of gifts from their aunts (Chloe and her siblings), grandparents, and Chloe’s aunts that refused to be called their great-aunts. Beca had celebrated having to get Chloe’s brother something, knowing that he just wanted someone to give him a gift card for a fishing supply store instead of hardware, for once (see? Gift cards could be personal!). Chloe, for her part, managed to find a rare book that the aunt she had drawn was interested in, while Beca received a set of joke aprons from Chloe’s Dad that she couldn’t actually open in front of the children present and Chloe warmly thanked her brother’s wife for the musical dog toys he had given her, nudging Beca to ensure she didn’t say anything about how the dogs were definitely not going to get to keep toys that they could use to make noise at all hours of the night.

“I want a dog Mom!” Chloe’s oldest nephew – Jack, aged eight, her sister’s first son – pleads, as the kids tear through their piles of presents finding all manner of toys, although not a dog.

“Sorry,” Chloe apologises, but her sister shakes her head.

“You know, maybe if you get a bit better at cleaning your room, we could think about getting a dog in Summer?” she tells him, Jack – and his six-year-old sister, Maddie – squealing in response. Somehow, it’s not a particularly loud noise in comparison to the ruckus that has been going on ever since they got far enough through lunch that people weren’t too busy stuffing their faces to talk.

For their part, Chloe’s brother’s kids are less concerned about the prospect of dogs – the youngest, only a year old, is busy slurping out of a bottle in her mother’s arms – although no less loud, the two eldest volunteering to clean up all the wrapping paper, only to wrap it into balls and start throwing it at everyone.

“So, when are we going to see some mini Beale-Mitchells?” Chloe’s brother asks, giving up stopping the wrapping paper fight once all five kids, the dogs, Chloe’s parents and some of their aunts are all involved, moving to take a seat beside Beca and Chloe. It seems to spark Beca’s Mum’s interest, as she quickly moves over to sit on the opposite side of them.

“Um, never,” Chloe answers, with a shrug, Beca nodding. “Like, I know when I was younger I was all for kids, and I kind of expected to start wanting my own when I got older but I never have, and Beca doesn’t either, so.”

“Aw, that’s a shame,” Chloe’s brother answers, but Beca’s Mum quickly jumps in.

“I mean, not really, not wanting them is a great reason not to have kids.”

He just shrugs, wandering back to his own, trying to pull them out of a genuine physical fight they have now apparently got in.

“If you were anything like that, Beca, I might’ve changed my mind about kids,” her Mum jokes, motioning towards the duelling children, Beca raising an eyebrow. “I did always want one kid, though.” Beca doesn’t respond, trying to push down the feelings the comment brings up. Her own family isn’t something she likes to think about, even now. Chloe stands up, after a moment, wandering over to join a conversation with a group of others. Beca almost asks her to come back, but before she can, her mother speaks again.

“I know we’re not close, Beca, and I know I didn’t look out for you the way I should have when… when everything happened with the divorce, or with your graduation,” Rosalie starts, wringing her hands together in her lap. It’s an action Beca recognises all too well from herself. “I do love you, though, I hope you know that, and I’m so proud of everything you’ve achieved. And I’m really happy you’re with Chloe, because I can see that she makes you happy, and you deserve that.”

“At least one of my parents wants me,” Beca mumbles, before she can stop herself, wincing after she does. Her mother is the last person she should be complaining about him to – he divorced her, he cheated on her, he messed up her life, too. To her credit, her mother sighs and moves one arm around her in an awkward hug.

“I don’t profess to understand anything about that man these days,” she answers, a tinge of sadness to her own voice that makes Beca feel guilty.

“We invited him,” Beca starts, sighing herself, glancing down to the floor, “but he declined, wanted to spend Christmas with his family. Which apparently isn’t me. I’m… worried he won’t come to my wedding.”

“I would hope he’d be better than that, but I can’t promise anything,” Rosalie nudges Beca’s side and takes her arm back to end their awkward side-hug, prompting her to look up again, “wedding, hey?”

“I mean, yeah, I… guess. I’m asking her soon. Maybe tonight,” Beca admits, quietly, her eyes glancing over to where Chloe is sitting almost instinctively. Chloe looks back, as if she felt her gaze, smiling softly before returning to the conversation she’s engaged in.

“I’ve been waiting for a Beale-Mitchell wedding since you were five. You loved that girl the moment you met her,” she answers, and Beca squirms in embarrassment.

“Didn’t you introduce us when I was like, 15 months or something? I don’t think infants are capable of that.”

“Maybe not, but you guys wanted nothing to do with your parents as soon as you realised you could hang out with each other instead.”

* * *

Their house feels almost eerily quiet once everyone leaves, even with Chloe’s parents still sitting up in the living room talking to them. The others were all staying in hotels nearby – Chloe having quietly managed to pay without anyone making comment about it – and had left after they had their typical non-event of a Christmas dinner, all still too full from Christmas lunch for a proper evening meal. Chloe and her parents are doing most of the talking, now, Beca content to sit back in the couch and watch them, or more accurately, watch Chloe. She’s tired from the day’s activities, but her heart feels fuller and more content than she expected.

She excuses herself for a moment, Chloe throwing her a concerned look, Beca reaching out to squeeze her hand in response before she gets off the couch and heads for her home studio, located beside the guest room where Chloe’s parents are staying. They’d put the guest room and studio downstairs to maintain as much privacy – and lack of 4am insomnia mixing noise created by Beca – as they could for their own bedroom. Beca had hid Chloe’s engagement ring in her studio because it was the one place in their house she never looked in. The box is too big to stuff in the pocket of her skinny jeans, so she grabs the jacket she’d left in the studio a few days ago off the chair and throws it over her shoulders, her left hand remaining wrapped around the box inside the pocket.

She’s mentally preparing herself to just ask in front of Chloe’s parents, now fixed with the idea that she has to do it tonight and it’s rapidly getting late and she doesn’t want to be rude to Chloe’s parents, but when she returns to the living room, she sees them standing up from the couch and saying their goodnights to Chloe. They wish her goodnight, too, before moving off to the guest room, leaving Beca and Chloe standing in their living room.

“Cold?” Chloe asks, gesturing towards the jacket.

“A little,” Beca lies.

“I’ll put on the fire, we can move into the other room,” she responds, Beca nodding as she goes to clear the coffee cups from the table and move them to the kitchen so at least all the dishes are in one place, before following Chloe into the other room. Seeing Chloe smiling up at her, the overhead lights dimmed and the gas fireplace providing most of the light, pushes so much love into her heart that she feels like she might burst. Instead, she sits on the couch well inside Chloe’s personal space, her right side pressed against Chloe’s and her left hand returning to hold the box in her pocket. It might be obvious. She doesn’t really care.

“Did you enjoy today?” Chloe asks, before Beca can say anything.

“Yeah, I did, did you?” she turns the question back around, not surprised when Chloe nods.

“I like spending time with – well, most of them. It was good to see your Mum again too, and it… kind of makes me feel like things are becoming more formally cemented between us. You’ve never been just my girlfriend, to me, anyway, but us hosting Christmas together for our family is a more obvious demonstration that we’re not just dating, we’re together for, I hope, forever,” she finishes, and Beca grins, taking the segue she has been given.

“I feel like I should be saying that stuff right now, not you, since I’m the one holding the ring,” she comments, pulling the box out of her pocket and flipping it open to show Chloe. Chloe can’t be surprised, of course, they both knew this was coming, but she still brings a hand to her mouth and feels tears immediately collect in her eyes, struggling not to burst out with an answer before Beca even asks the question.

“Today made me feel exactly the same, though, Chloe. There are continually fewer and fewer things that I refer to as mine, instead, they’re ours, and I couldn’t be happier about that. I want to share my life with you, forever, to be by your side, to continue to show you how in love with you I am. You’re my favourite, you’re everything to me, you make me so happy, and I could go on forever about why but I think you already know, and I think you want me to shut up and ask already, so-“

She’s interrupted by a burst of laughter as Chloe nods shamefully, but she just smiles and shakes her head.

“Chloe, will you marry me?”

“Yes,” Chloe’s answer is immediate, bursting out of her as if she’s been holding it back for much longer than the last minute, much longer than just the last almost-two-years of dating, and she moves her hands up to Beca’s cheeks to pull her into a firm kiss. Beca brings one hand up to cup Chloe’s cheek, wiping at the tears that she can taste in their kiss, feeling her own eyes begin to water. Her other hand is still awkwardly holding a ring box between them, though, so she pulls away, lightly nudging Chloe back with the hand on her cheek.

“I need to put this on you, I think,” she reminds her, Chloe nodding and bringing her left hand down between them, her right remaining on Beca’s face. Beca carefully takes the ring out of the box – less carefully throwing the box on the table beside the sofa – and slides it on to her finger, letting out an exaggerated sigh of relief when it fits perfectly, as if she hadn’t been able to easily obtain Chloe’s ring size from Veronica.

“Nice ring, Mitchell,” Chloe comments, taking a moment to examine it, “it’s larger than the one hiding up in our wardrobe that I bought for you.”

“Were you planning on asking on our 2nd anniversary?” Beca asks, grinning, and Chloe laughs.

“How did you know?”

“Just a guess, but it seemed like the kind of sappy special day thing you’d do,” she teases, Chloe poking her side. “I just wanted to get in before you, so the whole thing was less cliché.”

“As if you didn’t just ask me to marry you on Christmas Day, Beca,” she says, as she moves to get up from the couch, taking Beca’s hand to pull her up with her and quickly switching off the fire and the light as they move towards the stairs, up to their bedroom, “you’ve really gotta stop pretending you aren’t a complete sap.”

“Only for you,” Beca replies, honestly, pulling Chloe to a stop and into her arms as soon as they enter their bedroom.

“Mhm, I know. Forever.”

“I can’t wait.”


End file.
